Biden is wrench in McCain's VP choice

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-27 21:20

Another Ridge weakness is that a consulting firm he created after serving in the Bush administration recently disclosed a large lobbying contract with Albania.

Obama would seize on that contract to undermine McCain's efforts to position himself as a crusader against the professional advocacy class.

While McCain aides are pressing for a strategic pick, insiders say the independent-minded Arizona senator has approached the decision through the lens of governing: Who would add value to policy debates, and who is best prepared to step into the top spot?

• That approach tends to enhance the credentials of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a recently turned independent who has an easy rapport with McCain and who has already run for vice president as a Democrat.

But Lieberman's long history as a Democrat could make for a bizarre debate with Biden - with the two of them sharing long records supporting labor causes and abortion rights and a host of other issues that would infuriate McCain's activist base.

In essence, said one insider, a Lieberman pick "means McCain would run a campaign without a core constituency of the Republican Party."

Phyllis Schlafly, of the conservative Eagle Forum, was more blunt: "I think there would be a walkout on Lieberman at the convention. He's not a Republican."

McCain's rethinking doesn't mean that the Biden pick doesn't open some doors.

While Biden enhances Obama's foreign policy credentials, he doesn't represent an effort to reach out to moderate voters. Both men are ranked among the Senate's most liberal members.

Brian Darling, a political analyst at the Heritage Foundation, says McCain doesn't "need to answer" the Biden pick and could take advantages of the geographic flexibility it suddenly offers him.

"If this election is going to be as close as the polls indicate, Joe Biden doesn't change the map at all," said Darling.

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