He was probably hoping for an endorsement from a paper with a daily readership in the double-digits, but Joe Biden will take whatever he can get, and today he gets the Storm Lake Times, a small publication in northwestern Iowa.

We have seen all the Democratic presidential candidates, except for two, up close and personal: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson. Biden is our choice for the nomination for the powerful personal story he shares, for his deep knowledge of international affairs, and for his long record of exemplary service in the United States Senate.

Biden is astounding with his sheer command of world politics and conflict. He has distinguished himself by offering the only workable plan to get us out of harm’s way in Iraq. He advocates a loose federal system under which the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds would each control their own territory, somewhat similar to the notion of American federalism. He would remove American troops to a safe distance in friendly environs ­ Kurdistan and Kuwait, to name two ­ and let the Iraqis solve their own problems.

The article dramatically simplifies Biden's approach to Iraq, but it definitely nails his biggest selling point - his expertise in the international arena. So far, Biden has blown away his Democratic competitors in every foreign policy segment of the televised debates, and offers the attractive combination of being both an anti-war candidate and being able to intelligently describe just how he would get American soldiers out of Baghdad.

There's plenty of speculation that Biden is really in the race in order to position himself to be selected as Secretary of State, but if he's going to make a legitimate run at the Democratic nomination, he'll have to pull some surprising numbers in Iowa - and nothing says "dark horse" like the staff of Storm Lake.