The American presidential election has become one of the most exhausting competitions known to man. Below-the-belt smear campaigns by 527 groups and relentless media scrutiny make the Ironman look like a cakewalk.

The Bush team understood the increasingly merciless political climate back in 2000 and wisely crowned Vice President Dick Cheney as the official campaign attack dog. Unpopular though he may be, Cheney knows how to go for the jugular while the top of the ticket maintains a relatively positive and forward-thinking message.

Although I can understand the attraction to Senator Joe Lieberman’s reputation as a moderate or Senator John Edwards’ populist charm, the 2000 and 2004 democratic vice presidential nominees did not fully acknowledge that presidential campaigning has become a contact sport.

The candidate who fills the 2008 democratic VP slot must not make the same mistake. Webb, former Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan, is tough as nails. Last November, he managed a major upset over then-2008 republican presidential prospect, Sen. George Allen. And if we were to walk away from Webb’s victorious campaign with just one lesson, it would be this: When hit with unfair attacks from the elephant herd, this man knows how to poach.

Webb first caught my eye when Sen. Allen attacked him for opposing a flag desecration amendment on the grounds that it was a violation of free speech. Allen’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, dismissed Webb’s position as evidence that “he is totally beholden to the liberal Washington Senators who dragged him across the line in the democratic primary.”

When I heard the Webb campaign’s response, I screamed with delight: “While Jim Webb and others of George Felix Allen Jr.’s generation were fighting for our freedoms and four symbols of freedom in Vietnam, George Felix Allen Jr. was playing cowboy at a dude ranch in Nevada.”

It gets better: “People who live in glass dude ranches should not question the patriotism of real soldiers who fought and bled for this country on a real battlefield. Is Dick Wadhams willing to publicly say that Colin Powell, John Glenn and Bob Kerrey are unpatriotic for having the same position on the flag burning amendment that Jim Webb has? Ask him.”

Yes! Webb wasted no time in taking a baseball bat to the republican attack machine, which was immediately forced to defend itself against the suggestion that it was attacking Powell, a rock star among republicans, by extension. In effect, he said to Allen, you’re a coward who has no ground to stand on when it comes to the issue of patriotism and fighting for America’s freedoms, including freedom of speech. How dare you?

Anyone vying for the 2008 democratic nomination should expect to get pounded. Although a fast and overwhelming response from the actual presidential candidate seems ideal, there will be times when he or she will need to rise above the negativity and stay on message. With Webb on the team, there is no doubt that justice will be dispensed any time his man (or woman) is hit. We need him in our corner.