NEW YORK — At a time when the Beijing Olympics have increased America's apprehension of China's rising power, Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, has chosen Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden is the influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and an established leader in Washington.
Biden will erase Obama's supposed weakness that Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, is exploiting — inexperience with Washington politics and foreign affairs. Moreover, Biden will challenge McCain's self-promoting image as the "maverick" Republican who can fix a broken Washington.
McCain is known for his trigger-happy machismo and is advocating Cold War confrontations with Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea. As Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote Aug. 24, "McCain is still fighting Red China in Vietnam and the Soviet Union in the Cold War. He will be an unstable bridge back to an increasingly distant 20th-century America."