Among the first fruits of an Obama presidency will be an international crisis, his running mate said in Seattle last weekend.

"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy," Sen. Joe Biden said at a fund-raiser. "Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy." Mr. Obama's response to the crisis may not seem adequate, Mr. Biden said.

"We're going to need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him, because it's not going to be apparent initially, it's not going to be apparent that we're right," he told the Democratic fat cats.

"You all are going to be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?' " Mr. Biden said. "There are going to be a lot of you who want to go 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision.' "

This is the most remarkable thing a vice presidential candidate has ever said about the top of his ticket during a campaign. But Mr. Biden's remarks drew little attention from many mainstream journalists who are loathe to draw attention to information uncongenial to Mr. Obama's prospects in November.

This may in part be because Mr. Biden is given to saying remarkable things which aren't true: That Franklin Roosevelt (who wasn't elected until 1932) went on television (which didn't go into widespread commercial use until after World War II) to explain the causes of the stock market crash of 1929; that Hezbollah has been driven out of Lebanon; that J-O-B-S is a three-letter word. But Mr. Biden was picked for his alleged foreign policy expertise, and he has been receiving classified intelligence briefings.

President Kennedy had two foreign policy tests early in his presidency, flunking the first and passing the second.

At a summit meeting in Vienna in June 1961, Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev concluded Kennedy could be pushed around. The immediate consequence was the building of the Berlin Wall. In response, Kennedy made his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a jelly doughnut) speech, but otherwise did nothing.

After Kennedy failed to come to the aid of Cuban exiles during the Bay of Pigs invasion, Khruschev concluded he could put ballistic missiles in Cuba. The result was the Cuban missile crisis. This time Kennedy stood firm. The missiles were removed. But we came very close to nuclear war.

What tests might await a President Obama?

"I can give you four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Mr. Biden told the Seattle fat cats, mentioning the Middle East and Russia.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday that Iranian officials are urging a preemptive strike on Israel to head off an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. U.S. intelligence officials likely would have known this before the news media. Could this be what prompted Sen. Biden's musings?

When Russia invaded Georgia in August, Mr. Obama's initial response was to urge Russia and its tiny victim of aggression to exercise "restraint." Might Russia invade other neighbors? Ukraine? Azerbaijan?

The implication of Mr. Biden's remarks is that voters will be buying trouble if they choose Mr. Obama in November, because America's enemies are unlikely to "test the mettle" of John McCain.

Mr. Biden, according to Michael Crowley of The New Republic, once suggested to staffers that an appropriate response to the 9/11 attacks might be to send a check, "no strings attached" for $200 million to the mullahs in Tehran. So I don't think much of his judgment. But I do think he's right in this instance. A President Obama will be challenged by our enemies, and he'll flinch.

But even if Mr. Biden's prediction is correct, to say such a thing three weeks before an election shows remarkably poor judgment. Having "Slow Joe" a heartbeat away is almost as disconcerting as an Obama presidency.