WASHINGTON
Dick Cheney's selection to be George W. Bush's running mate is proving to have been a good move for Bush.
Joe Lieberman's selection by Al Gore is great for the country.
Breaking a barrier of bigotry that has stood for all of American history, despite gigantic contributions by Jewish Americans at every stage of that history, is a triumph, period.
More than anything, Al Gore's choice - which in the final hours was literally a victory over more narrowly political options - brings to mind Robert Kennedy's famous words while he was in racist South Africa in 1966, still among the best human rights words every spoken:
''Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.''
Or, as Joe Lieberman, up from poverty as well as bigotry, put it yesterday in Connecticut, ''What a great country this is.''
Not quite. The United States is still struggling with the bigotry and racism that have been in its system from the beginning. It is a struggle that will never end. And in politics, it is dispiriting that the few breakthroughs that have occurred at the national level have not been repeated. John Kennedy was the first and remains the only Catholic president. Geraldine Ferraro was the first and remains the only female to have been nominated for major-party national office. Guy stuff pollutes politics at all levels, Bob Jones III's vicious bigotry during this year's South Carolina primary is a reminder that Catholics still face real prejudice, and no racial minority has yet come close to national office.
Now another big tree in the forest has fallen. The initial reaction has been strongly positive, a good sign. The Gallup Poll people, with lineage back to the America of the 1930s, can trace the country's gradual maturation, noting that only 46 percent of respondents in 1937 said they would vote for a presidential candidate who was Jewish but 92 percent say they would do so now.
Still, there is an undercurrent of concern about what will happen in the privacy of voting booths. The analogy mentioned more than once is to the race for governor of California in the strong Democratic year of 1982. Leading by healthy margins throughout was the African-American mayor of Los Angeles, the late Tom Bradley. But a six-point lead on Election Day disappeared in what analysts later interpreted as a white backlash that built up below the radar screens.
These concerns are misplaced today, as evidenced by the fact that during the entire selection process Lieberman's Orthodox faith was not considered at all. But that doesn't mean that the country shouldn't be on guard against ugliness and shouldn't be prepared to pounce on it in whatever form it appears.
Which brings us to George W. Bush, who hasn't got a bigoted cell in his body. He has nonetheless regularly exhibited the kind of insensitivity that is a factor in making major minorities in America feel excluded from the mainstream. It began with a comment at the time of his first campaign for governor of Texas when he opined that only people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior can enter heaven. And traces of it continued into this year's campaign, with his pandering at Bob Jones University, his remark in Iowa that Christ is the most important influence on his thinking, and just this month when he signed legislation proclaiming June 10 as Jesus Day in the state.
What is behind all this is a religious conservatism that has more than once sought to spread the notion that the United States is a ''Christian'' nation. It is pure bunk. The whole idea of the establishment clause in the First Amendment is to encourage all religions, not designate one. That inclusive philosophy was also fervently believed in by our Jefferson-influenced founders, who were almost truculently anti-establishment if not anti-clerical.
What the selection of Lieberman means is that the simplest expression of American optimism there is - my kid can grow up to be president - now includes several million more Americans than it did yesterday.
There will be time for the centrist voting record, the dramatic rebuke of President Clinton, the occasional conservative vote for school choice experiments, the battle with Bill Bennett against the entertainment business, the moderate stance on Medicare and Social Security reform, and the leadership of the New Democrats via the Democratic Leadership Council. There will also be time for the important reminders that Joe Lieberman is unlikely in the end to make much difference in the Bush-Gore campaign.
For now, it's enough that Gore has made the right kind of history by knocking down a barrier that should never have existed. Now the rest of us have to make sure it stays down.
Thomas Oliphant is a Globe columnist.
