Can a senior citizen Capitol Hill fixture convince voters he's capable of initiating the same kind of wholesale change that his chameleon-like young opponent promises? 

John McCain must come up with a definitive answer to this question quickly before he loses undecided voters.  If he is unable to counter Obama's sloganeering he will forever be labeled "the same OLD same old candidate".

Making it happen will require a move so unexpected and so radically indicative of a change mentality that it would suck the air from Obama's empty promises and neutralize any strategy yet to be employed by the Obama Campaign. Choosing Senator Joseph Lieberman as his running mate would accomplish that and more for John McCain.

Sure, Joe Lieberman ran for Vice-President on the Democrat ticket alongside Al Gore.  More recently, however, he declared himself Independent and handily won re-election in Connecticut after his party turned its back on him in favor of an unknown leftist anti-war candidate.

Keep in mind that the Gore/Lieberman ticket received the majority of the popular vote over Bush/Cheney in the controversial 2000 presidential election. It can be argued that Senator Lieberman's conservative, patriotic stance and first-to-say-it criticism of Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal lent credibility to his running mate's questionable centrist claims while helping Al Gore distance himself from the flawed chief executive he served for eight years.

Sure, Joe Lieberman continues to caucus with Senate Democrats.  However, he has been one of that body's strongest advocates for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan and he regularly visits the troops and chronicles their progress better than any other legislator.  Lieberman is a consistent supporter of Israel -- he is Jewish which, in this election cycle, could match or trump candidate race or gender -- he strongly supports free trade economics and his stellar pre-senate law-and order resume includes a stint as Connecticut's Attorney General.

Most importantly, Lieberman has a solid history of voting with Republicans on most ethical and judicial issues. John McCain's Senate voting history and bill co-sponsorship will continue to be questioned by conservatives.  Not Joe Lieberman's.

In short, Joe Lieberman is a DINO (Democrat In Name Only) while the opposite term has been accurately and liberally applied to John McCain before and after he entered the race for the Republican nomination.

Just as Lieberman's conservative credentials helped Gore gain crossover and independent voters, the senator's record could actually serve to make it easier for McCain to woo the disgruntled conservative Republican base while attracting unaffiliated voters who are desperately seeking a sincere, independent, experienced change-ist candidate to support.  Having Lieberman on the Republican ticket might actually give conservatives a reason to vote in an election that is currently missing a candidate with whom they can even remotely identify. 

It is critically important to realize that if Republicans were to stay home in protest the election would be won by a Democrat on the turnout factor alone.  If turnout in the primaries is any indication, Democrats are likely to be voting in record numbers on Election Day.

Perhaps John McCain needs to cross both the time line and the party line to prove he can be as chameleon-like as Barak Obama.  In any case, the old French proverb The more things change the more they stay the same will, again, be proven correct regardless of what Obama promises.

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