Larison and Antle debate the wisdom of Obama selecting Virginia Sen. James Webb as his running mate. I’m a Webb enthusiast (and voter) myself, and if he were on the ticket, I might vote for it. But not enough has been said so far about the senator’s deficiencies as a politician and campaigner. He has a great resume, but that’s not enough to guarantee that blue-collar white voters in Ohio and West Virginia — most of whom have never heard of Webb — will vote for him. Webb’s appeal to the working class is the whole rationale for picking him. But how would Webb sell with voters in general? He’s not charismatic or a rousing speaker, and while he’s one of the smartest individuals in the Senate, he might well come off as brusque or boring in a debate. (Then again, he could seem Cheneyesque — for once, I mean that in a good way — in a vice presidential debate against a younger opponent with a lighter resume.)

Webb would be an honorable choice for Obama, but not necessarily the most effective choice. His electoral appeal even in Virginia is not so firmly established: his victory over George Allen was by the slimmest of margins, and hardly anyone expects he would pull the Old Dominion into the Obama camp if he were the Illinois senator’s running mate. Would he really attract blue collar voters in sufficient numbers of compensate for Obama’s weakness with them? I’m skeptical — though I’m also skeptical of whether Obama will be as weak with these voters once the general election campaign gets under way.

Webb could enhance Obama’s post-partisan appeal, however: adding a former Reagan cabinet official to the ticket would only swell the ranks of Obamacans.