For the past decade, Robert P. Schwartz has required attendance at his birthday parties on the first weekend in August. Otherwise his family wouldn’t get any inheritance from him. But here’s the kicker: The guy is dead.

Even though Senator Biden comes to the Democratic ticket with decades of political relationships and personal history in electoral battleground states that Senator Obama cannot match, the new team’s advisers acknowledge that Mr. Biden is not a cure-all for the political challenges facing Mr. Obama, of Illinois.

Many of the social measures on the ballots are being pushed by evangelical groups that hope to force Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, to pay closer attention to their agenda. The proposals that are likely to attract the most attention are same-sex marriage and abortion amendments, along with proposals to ban affirmative action.

Since the meltdown in Florida in 2000, a large, nonpartisan coalition called Election Protection — made up of civil rights groups, good-government organizations and major law firms — has been doing critical work in standing up for voters. It is an effort that anyone who cares about democracy should get behind.

Witnesses said the 47-year-old Spring Hill man showed his son how to crush and snort pills like the painkiller oxycodone and the heroin substitute methadone.

Senator Obama’s request is likely to cause consternation among party officials, who have struggled to maintain some authority over the primary calendar.