THE ISSUE: Se. Joe Biden selection as Obama running mate

OUR OPINION: Experienced lawmaker brings strength to ticket

Democrats have reason to celebrate at this week’s national convention.

The party is preparing to nominate Sen. Barack Obama in a historic vote that will launch the fall campaign for the presidency. Obama’s choice for a running mate, announced Saturday, makes the Democratic duo a formidable foe for Republican John McCain and the person he chooses for his ticket.

Vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden brings to the Democrats an experienced voice who will take on Republicans as he has been doing for six terms as a U.S. senator. The Delaware lawmaker is known for his expertise on foreign policy and has been on the front lines of debate with the Bush administration.

At the same time, Biden is known as a lawmaker who knows how to work the other side of the political aisle. He has a long friendship with McCain and has worked with the Arizona senator frequently on issues, even joining him in criticism of President Bush on Iraq and other matters.

That will make his voice a strong one in the fall debate over foreign policy and lend credence to the charge that McCain has abandoned his maverick label and taken up many positions akin to the present administration.

Biden also provides Obama with a counter to the charge that the presidential nominee is an elitist. Biden is considered a pragmatic “good guy,” a lawmaker of the type who takes public transportation back to Delaware from Washington on a daily basis. He is popular in neighboring Pennsylvania, where Obama suffered at the hands of Democratic primary opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He does well with working-class voters and will lend credence to the traditional label of Republicans as the elitists.

Biden, however, does provide the McCain team ammunition.

As a primary opponent of Obama and Clinton who simply never got political traction because of the wave of enthusiasm over the two who battled to the finish line, Biden had specific criticisms of Obama. Most notable is the angle already being used by McCain in political ads that Biden himself labeled Obama as unready to take over the presidency, referencing the position as not conducive to on-the-job training. That reinforces the main McCain campaign theme that Obama is too inexperienced to lead, a worry that polls show is shared by many Americans.

There also is the McCain strategy of courting the millions of Clinton supporters. With polls showing just more than half of her backers are actively in Obama’s corner, McCain is painting the picture that the Biden choice amounts to shrugging off Clinton. McCain needs her voters in key states if he is to capture the presidency.

For his part, look for Biden to wage a civil campaign, but he will be aggressive. The senator is known to speak his mind (which could be problematic as Obama tries to stay on a very scripted message). He is known to disagree even with allies, sometimes publicly.

Obama is counting on Biden to add strength to the Democratic ticket. And if the Democrats carry the day in November, let’s all hope Biden will serve Obama and the nation well as an experienced leader in very turbulent times.

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