Well, readers, it’s over.

After pulling just 23 delegates to the Iowa State Democratic Party (or 1 percent of the total) our favorite candidate for the White House, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., has announced he’s quitting the race.

Biden put out this statement:

I wanted to send a short note to say how incredibly grateful I am for the support you have shown me in this campaign. My entire family and I are in awe of the many of you who opened up your hearts and homes to us during the campaign to give us a chance to change this race, and the country, for the better.

And we succeeded. Whether it was keeping the Democratic Party focused on finding a political solution in Iraq, securing funding for MRAP vehicles for our troops, or calling for a fundamentally new approach to Pakistan, we had an impact on this election in ways that will reverberate into next November, when we elect a Democrat to the White House.

Although I am ending my presidential campaign, I am not going away. I’m returning to the Senate as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will continue to ensure that we protect the nation’s security and show our country that Democrats know how to keep America safe, keep our commitment to our troops and restore our country’s respect in the world.

Again, thank you so much for making all of this possible.

And for those interested, here’s the YouTube video of his speech after the disappointing results came in last night.

As regular readers know, we were (and remain) big fans of Biden, and we’ve talked to myraid people from many different campaigns, all of whom said one version or another of the same thing: "I really like Joe Biden." Unfortunately, they didn’t caucus for him, despite rumblings out of Iowa that Biden was going to surprise pundits by an especially strong showing.

As far as we’re concerned, Biden is still the best, most qualified candidate of either party to be seeking the White House this cycle. His performance in debates, his stands on issues and his frank style of campaigning all prove that. His departure from the race is a loss, for his fellow Democrats, and for the country.

But as Biden notes, he’ll still be in a position to exert influence in Washington, even as the George W. Bush administration winds down. He’ll still be in a position to advocate for his ideas, the most important of which is ending our current war in Iraq while at the same time preventing the Bush administration from starting a new one in Iran. For that, we all owe him a debt.

And who knows? Biden is still a very viable candidate to run as a vice president, or to serve in a Cabinet post as Secretary of State. (He’d be the best one we’ve had in decades.) Let’s hope whoever does win the Democratic nomination to the presidency is smart enough to see that.