Bob Novak is reporting that John McCain will name his Vice-Presidential running mate this week:
Sources close to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip. The name of McCain’s running mate has not been disclosed, but Mitt Romney has led the speculation recently.
Novak has been both spectacularly right and spectacularly wrong about these sorts of things in the past, so it remains to be seen if this is for real or not.
If it is, I’ve really got to wonder why McCain would put the Veep choice out there at this point. The GOP Convention is more than a month away, and an announcement now would just mean increased scrutiny on the running mate between now and then. That is rarely good, and can often be bad — just ask Dan Quayle.
More importantly, though, if the only reason McCain would do this now is to steal a few headlines from Obama while he’s on his overseas trip, then that in itself is a sign that the McCain campaign has become completely reactionary and incapable of setting the agenda of this campaign.
If that’s the case, then McCain is doomed no matter what he does this week.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:24 pm
McCain’s likely picking Jindal or Palin. Palin blows the experience arguement out of the water, so Jindal has to be considered the front runner.
Jindal should be happy, it sets him up as the Republican front runner in 2012 where he can con the entire country, not just us dumb hicks in Louisiana.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Kevin,
Any chance that Jindal could fall victim to what did in Dan Quayle ?
July 21st, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Doug,
I doubt it. Jindal’s much smarter than Dan Quayle.
He’s the Republican Barack Obama.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:39 am
[...] with Bob Novak’s report that McCain could name his selection this week, which has been discounted by others, some are questioning the timing of a pre-Olympics [...]
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:11 am
Kevin,
The Republican Barack Obama…..
That doesn’t exactly sound like a hearty endorsement
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Doug,
It’s not meant as a compliment.
In six months, Jindal has:
Destroyed Louisiana’s ethics laws (as they were) and enforcement of such (as they were). That’s right, he’s made corruption worse.
Handed out corporate welfare checks to numerious campaign contributors and even his wife’s former employer in the name of “economic development”
Opposed an income tax cut, but flip-flopped on it when he saw the legislature move instead to try and eliminate the state income tax. Now, his spinners are saying he’s for it.
Signed and pushed for a bill to permit the teaching of creationism fairy tales in science classrooms all over Louisiana.
Created a vail of secrecy over the governor’s office which is unparallelled, even for Louisiana. Just like the Bush administration.
Finally, his administration is in permanent campaign mode, like the Bush regime, with legislators who oppose him having their pork projects eliminated while his supporters have their projects kept.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I definitely will not vote for John McCain if Bobby Jindal is VP.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I will definately not vote for McCain no matter who is his VP!
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Kevin,
You’re closer to the reality of Jindal than I am, but the one that did it in for me was the evolution/creationist bill he signed onto about a month ago.