With his endorsement by Sen. Joe Lieberman, Sen. John McCain offers us more evidence he may be a better candidate for the Democratic presidential field than the Republican field.

Lieberman, who calls himself an "independent Democrat" and who lost the Democratic primary for his Senate seat last year but left the party to run for re-election, said he wasn't going to let party identity get in the way of a good candidate.

"The problems that confront us are too great, the threats we face too real, and the opportunities we have too exciting for us to play partisan politics with the presidency," he said.

Lieberman's endorsement would be huge if this were a general election. Remember, seven years ago he was his party's vice presidential nominee. Imagine Dick Cheney endorsing John Edwards.

But unfortunately, McCain is still running for the Republican nomination. And while Lieberman's support is nowhere near as poisonous as Cheney's endorsement would be for Edwards in a Democratic primary, it doesn't really gain McCain much, except for press attention.

And Lieberman, who broke with his party over Iraq, helps underscore that McCain is close to a one-issue guy: the Iraq war.

All that having been said, the endorsement could help with a very strategic concern. In New Hampshire, independents can pick which primary to vote in. So Lieberman's endorsement may help McCain keep some of them voting for him in the Republican primary, rather than jumping to take part in the Democratic showdown between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

-- Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times