These are all important questions. But the larger question for voters really is: What would he bring to the job if their ticket is elected? As we’ve learned, particularly during the past eight years with Dick Cheney, a vice president who is smart, aggressive, experienced — and is respected by the president — can have a major impact on our lives.

Biden is clearly all of those things. So if the Democratic ticket wins, how would he approach the job?

I got a chance to see his approach up close one day in early September 1999, when I was U.S. ambassador to Romania. In the aftermath of NATO’s success in stopping ethnic cleaning in Kosovo, Cabinet members and Members of Congress stopped in Bucharest to thank the Romanians for their support of NATO and get a feel for where the Balkan region was going in its aftermath.