The knock on Sen. John Edwards, who is Democrat Sen. John Kerry’s choice as a running mate, is his level of foreign policy experience.

The 51-year-old has not yet completed his first term in the United States Senate, his first go at elective office. Before winning his North Carolina seat, Edwards was a trial lawyer.

During the primary campaign, Edwards played to domestic issues and did not fully articulate his foreign policy perspectives until late in the game. That cost him.

Republicans are eager to say he’s unprepared to be president, echoing a charge leveled by Kerry during the primaries. They mock his time on the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence and say he compares poorly even to Dan Quayle – who served as vice president for George H.W. Bush and was criticized for his thin rsum – not to mention the much more experienced Vice President Dick Cheney.

According to a July 9 Washington Post story, Edwards scores a little better on foreign policy than his critics give him credit. In the summer of 2001, before the attacks of Sept. 11, Edwards was warning about the threat posed by terrorists while the foreign policy establishment was focused on missile defense. And he has presented bold ideas on spreading democracy, on containing weapons of mass destruction and reforming the intelligence community, and was quick to recognize the communication failure among federal, state and local authorities trying to deal with homeland security.

President Bush, before taking office, had traveled only to Mexico and, during the presidential campaign, to Israel. Edwards has been to Afghanistan – after the fall of the Taliban – Israel, Egypt, England and Brussels, among other places, and met with foreign leaders along the way.

Edwards’ foreign policy experience is not out of line with, and may even exceed, Ronald Reagan’s, Bill Clinton’s and George W. Bush’s when they took office.

Even so, Edwards is not running for president. He will be on the ticket as the vice presidential nominee. He would only take over the top job if something happened to Kerry, who has plenty of experience in government, foreign policy and the military.

The job of president is unique. No man, no matter his credentials, is prepared for the most powerful job in the world. Nothing else compares. Obviously, experience matters. But so do ideas and vision. It falls to the candidates to make their case and to voters to ensure that the person elected has the intelligence and integrity to grow into the job.

Doomsday plan

Terrorists may be planning attacks aimed at disrupting elections this fall. That’s the word coming out of the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department.

A federal voting commission and some terrorism officials suggested a process be developed for canceling or postponing elections in the event of a major attack.

It’s reasonable to be prepared for the worst, but postponing national elections is a bad idea.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said there was intelligence that al-Qaida could be planning an attack inside the United States in an attempt to affect the November election. Ridge did not raise the national terror alert warning level – we’re still at the yellow, elevated level – and said the information was not specific. Hardly the evidence necessary to rewrite election law and put democracy on hold.

National elections have continued in the United States under the most dire circumstances. Voters have picked presidents during times of war, including the Civil War, and while under the threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. Elections have withstood natural disasters and national scandals.

Al-Qaida, which remains a dangerous terror organization intent on attacking America, should not be allowed to dictate when and how we pick our leaders.