In selecting his best possible running mate, Barack Obama has just handed John McCain a terrific opportunity.
Make no mistake: Sen. Joe Biden was a prudent pick. Senator Joe has the seasoning and foreign-policy experience that Obama lacks.
He has overcome personal adversity to lead an impressive career. He's both intelligent and telegenic. He's scrupulous. And he has the common touch.
Perhaps most important is this: Biden is an asset in the bellwether Philadelphia suburbs, which will decide Pennsylvania and possibly the nation.
The man who rides Amtrak home to Delaware after a day of Senate business is sometimes referred to as Pennsylvania's third senator, both for his continued proximity and his Scranton roots.
Selecting Biden was Obama's play for Pennsylvania by way of the Philly 'burbs, and it's a good one.
But by making that play, Obama has given McCain the political cover he needed to respond with his best available pick:
Tom Ridge.
Ridge has much to offer McCain. From public housing to Harvard, his narrative is ready for the history books: He's a Vietnam veteran, a former U.S. representative and governor, and the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
He's Central Casting handsome and loyal to McCain.
And to top things off, he is an abortion-rights advocate.
Yes, I am including that position as an attribute for the ticket - mainly because the very people McCain needs to reach are pro-choice.
McCain's impressive performance Aug. 17 at the forum hosted by Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church earned him cred with the anti-abortion crowd.
He said all the right things that night, and the next morning Ridge made clear in an appearance with Chris Wallace on Fox News that he would reflect the president's positions if selected.
They would run under an antiabortion banner, but McCain's selection of Ridge would be a sign to non-litmus-test voters that they, too, are welcome - in the same way the Democratic platform has welcomed antiabortion voters.
The political middle is ripe for McCain support. Consider this: In a poll released last week by NBC and the Wall Street Journal, a staggering 21 percent of women who had supported Hillary Rodham Clinton said they were supporting McCain.
Sure, they're angry and want to see their candidate back on the ballot in 2012.
But I suspect they're also responding to McCain's efforts to recruit them.
McCain's success in appealing to former Clinton supporters proves he can gain ground in the middle, but not by resorting to the usual Republican reliance on turning out the vote by hitting the hot-button issues such as opposition to gay rights, flag-burning or abortion.
This is not a cycle in which the GOP should seek to drive the vote in Lancaster County. Now is the time to win hearts and minds in Montco.
I know that some pundits, including Rush Limbaugh, are saying McCain can ill afford to alienate the right by selecting an abortion-rights advocate as a running mate.
I disagree.
The suspicion of Obama among conservatives, epitomized by Jerome Corsi's new book, The Obama Nation, is deep and immutable.
Those conservatives will come out to vote, and neither maverick nor monsoon will stop them from doing so.
Some may be kicking and screaming, but they will be there Nov. 4.
They view the election as a referendum on Obama, and their minds are made up.
Suburbanites, meanwhile, are the non-ideological, pragmatic determinists of this contest, according to the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech.
And those of us in the Philadelphia suburbs will play a particular role.
Pennsylvania is again a swing state.
And the state will be swung according to what happens in Bucks, Chester, Montgomery and Delaware Counties.
Those who sent Ed Rendell to Harrisburg will call this shot. Collectively they constitute the Philadelphia media market. They read The Inquirer, subsist on Action News, and get their headlines from KYW Newsradio.
All of which gets me back to Joe Biden.
We know him. We like him. Biden tilts Pennsylvania in Obama's direction. Which is why McCain has just been handed an opportunity to do something I suspect he wanted to do all along: choose Ridge as his running mate.
Obama-Biden vs. McCain-Ridge. We can settle it all in a polling place right here in the Philadelphia suburbs.
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I have had more than one moderate conservati
McCain's position on choice is even more draconian than Bush's. He is against any exception for life/healt
My die-hard Republican dad and brother cannot stand McCain. They don't trust him at all and said they'll vote for Ron Paul or Bob Barr.
I think the Republican Party has waaayyyy underestim
Yeah, a bunch of racists may be motivated to go out and vote against Obama, but the GOP as a party is in trouble. They'll lose the more seats in the House and Senate. If John McCain wins? He is an opportunis
then he might well pick some gal, one who's been elected to
something, preferably
other. Unless just being female would piss off too many Repos.
It's almost like he hasn't got anything to lose. He *has* to have
a VP to run with. It's not optional. Whoa whoa whoa, choose a laaady!
As for being Ridge handsome, well, it's all relative, isn't it.
I cannot think of anyone he could ask to be his veep that would change my mind.
Look for Ken Doll (Mitt Romney) to wind up in the veep slot. Younger, personable
And you want to talk about central casting good looks? On one of Letterman'
Nuff said. ;-)
If he selects Ridge, it will be a political gift to Obama.
Ridge is known as BUSH'S guy. Ridge will remind voters of Bush.
The Democrats can even more so hammer the "McSame" message home.
Pro-life Republican
All of the talk about Lieberman, Fiorina, Ridge, etc., is just hot air. Seriously, though, I'd love him to go with any one of them, because the repercussi
Old Joe is as strong as Old John. But, he isn't the presidenti
I don't think Ridge could even deliver Pennsylvan
While I think Smerconish is one of the smartest and most reasonable guys on the right, this time he's way off base. The only thing good about this pairing is that "McCain/Ri
I just don't know how effective he would be in the general election. Winning Pennsylvan
It's not only about alienating your base, it's about the donations and volunteer work. I agree, they will still show up to vote a McCain ticket, regardless of his running mate, but he will need to come much closer to matching Obama's boots on the ground then Hillary did.
Lastly, I don't think that Ridge is a very effective attack dog. McCain is starting to feel some of the backlash for running a mildly negative campaign, to appeal to those middle of the road voters, he needs to remain the Maverick, not reconstitu
Biden has the luxury of being a fairly well known element, the opinion on him is pretty well establishe
McCain had his party's nomination in the bag nearly four months before the end of the Democratic Party’s primaries ended.
McCain's buddies in the main stream media were whining about Sen. Obama waiting so late to select his running mate, why haven't they bothered to question McCain’s tactics which are juvenile?
McCain's tactics are juvenile because McCain claims Sen. Obama does not have enough experience and lacks good judgment.
Yet, by waiting on Sen. Obama to make his VP selection before McCain would make his VP selection McCain undermines his argument about Sen. Obama's judgment.
AMAZING, SEN. OBAMA, THE POLITICAL NEOPHYTE, HAS CONTROLLED WHO AND WHEN THE REPUBLICAN
The republican
The way McCain has waited for Sen. Obama is juvenile - it looks like high school student body officers are being selected by McCain.
Why would the person who claims to have the better judgment wait until a political neophyte picked his nominee?
This does not look like McCain is confident of his own judgment that he would play such a juvenile waiting game.
McCain looks like a gutless, chicken hearted juvenile by waiting for Sen. Obama to pick his running mate.
It's called tactics. You might look it up. Imagine what will happen when the democrats, having just gorged themselves on, well, themselves
They're welcome as long as they are willing to vote for something they don't want! LOL