If campaign money had poured in and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was nipping at their heels, his fellow Democratic presidential candidates might have been less willing to agree with him. But in recent debates, particularly when questions on foreign policy and the world's trouble spots came up, one rival after another said, in some form, "Joe's right." It happened so often that "Joe's right" became the heart of a Biden campaign ad.

Biden met with the Monitor editorial board yesterday. Afterward, on the conduct of foreign affairs, the war in Iraq, the right course in Afghanistan, on immigration, energy policy and health care, we found that we too were saying, "Joe's right," or at least more right than most. His depth of knowledge is enriching the debate and providing a reality check - especially when others make promises that Biden's experience tells him they can't keep.

Biden has spent three decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and now chairs it. He knows the world's leaders and their nations, and he has long been privy to information most members of Congress, let alone most Americans, never see. That allows him to speak with authority.

The crucial failing of the Bush administration's foreign policy is that the president believes nations can be dealt with in isolation, Biden said. The administration fails to consider the impact our dealings with a nation has on its neighbors, its allies and the region. It also fails to give adequate consideration to the needs and concerns of America's allies. Thus the United States alienated many of them at a time when their help is sorely needed, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and elsewhere.

Biden decided long ago that fostering the division of Iraq into three or more regions that govern themselves as part of a Iraqi federation offered the best hope for stability in that nation. Eventually, he convinced Congress, which voted to adopt Biden's plan. So far, no one has offered a better, more well-thought-out plan to withdraw American troops without leaving chaos behind.

The next president will have to rebuild America's relationship with the rest of the world. America's allies will help us in Iraq. Muslims make up 14 percent of France's population, and there are large Muslim communities in many European nations. They don't want to help America, they want to help themselves, Biden said. The same is true of Iraq's neighbors. If we fail in Iraq or Afghanistan, like Europe, they will face serious problems.

Biden, who will soon begin his 35th year as a U.S. senator, is a pragmatist. He is quick to separate the ideal from the achievable. In this season of promises, that's refreshing. His approach to health care, the top domestic issue, is by some standards, modest. It calls for insuring every child - children are cheap to insure than adults - and subsidizing the catastrophic care whose costs terrify the uninsured and underinsured. To move toward universal coverage, Biden would allow anyone to join the federal employee health plan on a sliding scale based on income.

Biden's health plan is hardly perfect. But he's right when he says it could avert the kind of massive pressure from insurers and other vested interests that could otherwise kill meaningful reform. Biden's right about a lot of things. He has only an outside shot of becoming president. But his opinions on the issues are worth hearing.