Why is Joe Biden being ignored by everyone?

I haven't seen much of Joe Biden lately. The big news is Sarah Palin, and her experience or lack of it, depending on who you ask. Okay, that's a topic that bears some scrutiny, but I can't believe people don't already know the majority of things about her. Shouldn't take long to find out since she has no experience, she shouldn't have been able to do much damage by now.
I started to talk about Joe Biden, and even I wandered back to Sarah Palin. I think the media's disease must be contagious.
Anyway, what does the average American know about Joe Biden? I'll tell you what I know as someone who catches the occasional news show (other than Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who I think is even funnier, I watch those guys all the time) and reads whatever news pops up on my browser's home page.
Joe Biden has been in the Senate forever. I don't know what he did there exactly, except that everyone says he's some kind of expert in foreign policy. I just wonder if he's had so much influence with foreign policy, why are the Dems saying our policies are bad? They don't agree with his foreign policy either? If he doesn't have the influence, then where did he get foreign policy experience? I'm sure we could all stay on google for a few hours and be foreign policy experts. If voting on something makes you an expert, anyone who votes for President should be on TV spouting their expertise on Presidents. I don't mean to bash Joe Biden, I obviously don't know much about the guy, but I wonder exactly which average American does.