In choosing Mr John Edwards as his running mate in the US presidential election Mr John Kerry has opted for an attractive personality with a complementary appeal to Democratic and swing voters.
Mr Edwards, a comparatively youthful, first-time senator from North Carolina will appeal to Southerners, to a middle class whose interests he has championed against the rich whom he says President Bush supports with tax cuts, and to the small town "regular people" who figure strongly in his rhetoric.
It is a shrewd move by Mr Kerry, who must now consolidate the stronger showing he has made recently with a successful national convention at the end of the month.
Much is at stake in the presidential election and the accompanying congressional ones. The Democrats have a real chance to defeat Mr Bush on a platform summarised yesterday by Mr Kerry as he announced his running partner. Were he to do so, he would need to win majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate to carry out his full programme. He promised to provide "good paying jobs, affordable health care, energy independence and a strong military and strong allies so young Americans are never put in harm's way because we insisted on going it alone".
Mr Edwards brings considerable political and legislative experience to the campaign on employment and health issues. He has a charismatic personality with a potential appeal to American voters disillusioned with the Bush administration. He can push the Democrat campaign outside the rather conventional Washington channels in which Mr Kerry's political career has operated. He can animate and revitalise what otherwise threatened to be a conventional and stodgy campaign - without pushing it in too radical a direction. There are clear echoes of the Clinton era here.
Republicans were quick to say Mr Edwards lacks foreign policy and security experience, especially compared to Mr Bush's running partner, Vice-President Dick Cheney. It is a valid point. But Mr Kerry evidently believes it is more than compensated for by his own record and by the commitment to challenge Mr Bush's unilateralism on Iraq and other international issues - however much the administration's stance has had to change under the pressure of recent events and the need to repair damaged relations with Europe. The campaigning advantage of pitting Mr Edwards against Mr Cheney is clearly calculated to outweigh the imbalance in their political experience. This decision signals that the South will figure strongly in the contest, with Florida in the foreground once again. Mr Edwards has real appeal there, his ordinary background and lucrative legal career reinforcing one another.
The US remains polarised over the Bush administration's economic and foreign policy record. Shifts in the administration's stance on Iraq will take time to feed through into the campaign. But there are signs of greater public engagement than in recent national polls.