Joe Biden is an American success story who brings a lot to this ticket. As a Clinton supporter, I think Biden is the one other choice that makes sense in terms of uniting the party.

It isn't Hillary's backers who are posting comments about "Biden's plagiarism, back in 1965, in law school" and "Biden is...arrogant, garrulous and racially insensitive."

If the worst thing people can find to say about Joe Biden is that he plagiarized a paper 43 years ago and that he gave a stump speech which in all instances but one he credited to Neil Kinnock, that's a pretty weak case.

Teddy Kennedy was expelled twice from Harvard for cheating on tests, Martin Luther King was accused of plagiarizing part of his doctoral dissertation and Barack Obama gave a speech very similar to one given by Massachusetts Gov. Duval Patrick.

Do any of those instances matter to average people worried about losing their homes, their jobs, their health care or their family members in Iraq and Afghanistan? Not in my neighborhood.

The Bible says "By their deeds you shall know them" and Joe Biden has one hell of a lot of good deeds one can point to.

I am a Clinton supporter but I don't think the veep job would be a good fit for her.

If somebody wants to argue that there was a better vice presidential candidate, why not talk about that person's strengths instead of what you perceive as Biden's weaknesses. What name would you have been happy to hear?

David Levine, thank you for reminding me of another reason I like Biden:

"The fact that HE presided over the hearings which were nothing but a hatchet job on one of the great legal sholars of our age, Robert Bork, and helped make his great name into a cheap transitive verb as in, "We're going to bork him."

SaltyPappy, comments like yours should be enough to get many Democrats who are considering holding their noses and voting Republican to think twice.

Hope your boy doesn't choose Romney or we'll have months of arguing about the sins of the Mormon church vs. the Catholic church, when many of us strongly believe that discussion of a candidate's religion does not belong in a U.S. election and has no bearing on the problems facing the country.

To quote you for those who missed your remarks:

We Conservatives were hoping for Biden. I am betting the Obamaniacs haven't even considered the huge conflict with the Catholic Church that is now coming... For the Dimocrats (party of the radical feminists, homosexuals, Marxists, athiests, uneducated, lazy, illegals) Biden is a solid pick.

In addition to not mentioning his son, Hunter, the story also doesn't mention Biden's baby daughter who was killed in a car wreck along with his first wife in 1972 after he was elected to the Senate. Nor does it say that both his sons were seriously injured and that Biden was sworn into office at their bedside.

Why? Because it has nothing to do with the story, although it makes me feel a great deal of admiration for this man, who's always kept his pledge to return home to Delaware every night to be with his family.

The fact that somebody's child is serving in Iraq is meaningful, especially when it's somebody who is charged with making decisions on the war. There are far too few politicians who have a personal involvement in what's happening there.

And while "lobbyist" has become a dirty word, there are many good people who are registered lobbyists including war hero and former Sen. Max Cleland, who works to aid wounded soldiers but was disinvited from an Obama event because of being a lobbyist.

Efforts to curtail lobbying have resulted in absurd rules at this year's conventions such as lobbyists being allowed to serve delegates finger food but not sit-down dinners. Do people really think their representatives can be bought for a filet mignon but not by a shrimp on a toothpick?

Regarding Biden's worth, the discussion reminds me of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, McCain has too much money but Biden doesn't have enough, supposedly proving he's not a good manager.

To me, it proves that not all legislators are millionaires and that somebody like Biden can identify with average families like mine.

Some facts I hope the Obama/Biden team keep in mind going into the general:

According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, women, who make up more than half the population, have cast between four and seven million more votes than men in recent elections.

In every presidential election since 1980, more women voted than men. In 2004, 67.3 million women voted, compared to 58.5 million men, a difference of 8.8 million. In 2000, it was 59.3 million women and 51.5 million men, a difference of 7.8 million. In 1996, 56.1 million women voted, compared to 48.9 million men, a difference of 7.2 million.

Women have voted at higher rates than men among African-Americans, Hispanics and Whites in the last five presidential elections.

Women outnumber men among registered voters. In 2004, the last presidential election, 75.6 million women and 66.4 million men were registered voters, a difference of 9.2 million.

In June, an ABC/Washington Post poll in June showed among women, Clinton had a two to one margin.

I am not suggesting that most women who were Clinton supporters will vote for McCain or sit out the election.

I am suggesting that while some men tend to employ the blogosphere as a lecture platform, the majority of women use it for discussion.

It's extremely important for the campaign to find ways to reach out to women in a tone which appeals to them and to address concerns which extend far beyond Roe v Wade.

Oversimplifications such as saying any woman is a fool to vote for McCain because he's anti-abortion do a disservice to the complexities of issues faced by our country.