NP: MSNBC

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to learn that FiveThirtyEight.com is my new favorite political site, because it's all about the numbers. Nate Silver -- who I think I need to start hanging out with here in Chicago so that some of the stat-geekness rubs off on me -- crunches said numbers on Joe Biden. The key, I think, is at the end:

What's noteworthy is not so much that Biden will turn a lot of McCain voters on -- Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton would have done a better job of that -- but that he'll turn very few Obama voters off. As a result, this method projects a net swing of 2 points toward Obama, which is better than he'd do with any of the other candidates.

Also, the old-media conventional wisdom points to Biden's strength with seniors, Catholics and working-class Americans as a potential advantage, but I'm sure they'll slice those numbers sooner rather than later.