It also comes as the GOP's standard bearer John McCain appeared to benefit from the recent flare-up between Russia and it's former satellite state of Georgia.

Biden, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with more than three decades in Washington, can go toe-to-toe with McCain on foreign policy in a way Obama can't.

On the other hand, Biden also has more than thirty years of senate votes that can (and likely at this moment) are being scrutinized for any potential missteps that can be exploited.

Then there were the allegations of plagiarism that led to his early exit from 1988 presidential primary.

Biden also speaks his mind, perhaps to a fault; and once said there was no time for "on the job training" when it comes to the presidency, an early dig at Obama during the primary.

But the whole idea of Obama announcing his candidacy and now returning to the Old State Capitol in Springfield is to draw parallels between himself and another former Illinois lawmaker who had precious little experience in Washington but became one of the nation's greatest presidents.

I'll let you guess who that was.

All of that helps reinforce the mythos the Obama camp has crafted that the junior senator from Illinois is a Washington outsider, ready to heal the nation's divisions with a new style of politics, in his word, change.

So here's the question. Does picking a nearly four-decade Washington insider like Joe Biden undercut Obama's so far successful theme of change?

Let us know what you think.