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Bait and Switch on McCain’s VP Pick?

Posted by JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor in Politics.
Aug 29th, 2008 | Comments

I’ll give Team McCain credit for one thing this morning – they are successfully keeping the entire media focused on a series of red herrings. When the press would normally be talking about Obama’s historic acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium last night, they are busy releasing “breaking news” every ten minutes about the anticipated announcement of Big Mac’s running mate, expected to take place in Ohio today. Here’s some of the flotsam and jetsam riding high on the cable news beast this morning.

The “conventional wisdom” right up until midnight was that it was going to be Tim Pawlenty. As of this morning, the Governor is not heading to Ohio, plans on being at the State Fair today, and says he was “honored to be considered.”

Many others felt that McCain would bend a knee to Hugh Hewitt’s crowd and select Mitt Romney. As of this morning, however, NBC is reporting that Romney is in California and showing no signs of moving.

The Corner was reporting that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had “hastily departed from Anchorage, Alaska for Ohio.” ABC tracked her down this morning, however, and she is still in the frozen North.

Who does that leave? It leaves us with one big question. Where is Joe Lieberman? According to MSNBC, he’s in Ohio. Of course, being an old friend of Mac’s who has campaigned with him from beginning to end, it’s logical that he would be there for his friend’s announcement in any event.

Could the pick actually be Lieberman after all this time? Allow me to put on the Democrat’s Donkey hat for a moment and then steal a line from some of my Republican friends when Joe Biden’s name came up. “Could we really be that lucky?”

UPDATE: Could it be that Big Mac will not be announcing today because the GOP convention may be postponed as a hurricane bears down on New Orleans this coming Monday?

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elrod

There's still Rob Portman. He's from Ohio. But he's also a top Bush economic official. How that helps McCain is hard to see.

superdestroyer

If McCain wants Lieberman, the Republicans delegates would be wise to say no and refuse to vote for his nomination. A McCain-Lieberman ticket would be so bad that I doubt it could carry Utah.

ChrisWWW

I'm still hoping for Mittens!

Kathryn

I've been watching the circus on MSNBC. They are marveling over how McCain has gotten the attention off the Obama speech but here's thing, as each choice comes up it is immediately bashed unless the pick is completely out of the box, like Colin Powell, any choice is going out there with all his or her flaws on display. When Sarah Palin was mentioned Scarbourgh called her the "Harriet Miers pick." (that's when he and Buchannan aren't lauding the speech last night.) My personal thought is that it was going to Pawlenty then after the speech the McCain camp panicked and impulsively changed it's mind. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

StockBoySF

"My personal thought is that it was going to Pawlenty then after the speech the McCain camp panicked and impulsively changed it's mind."

I had the same general thought... that McCain might have changed his mind on his original choice after the Obama speech..... I've been thinking of how we can actually go about and make that determination since asking outright probably won't yield the true answer.

Jazz

Post updated: They are considering delaying the GOP convention given the hurricane heading toward NOLA. If that's the case, McCain buys a few more days to keep stringing the press along and keeping us guessing. And, of course, if the potential picks were all let in on that decision, they wouldn't have to leave for Ohio today at all, so we'd be back to square one.

Kathryn

Very interesting development, for what it is worth, MSNBC is saying they confirmed it's Palin.

StockBoySF

WIth regards to the update... I can't imagine that the GOP would actually delay the convention.... what about all those travel arrangements the delegates made? The Democrats were ecstatic at theirs. If the GOP moves their convention and the delegates had to reschedule their plans we just might see some floor flights....

Not to mention all the planning by the various Twin Cities agencies (police, transportation, etc.). I saw a couple pieces about how Obama's Mile High Stadium speech inconvenienced people on the interstate.... if the GOP does change the dates of the convention at the last moment, I'm not sure what could top it.

Besides, if the GOP is considering this because of the hurricane, it's not because of Hurricane Gustav, it's because of Hurricane Obama.

Thanks, Jazz for the post!

mikkel

If it's Palin that's an awesome pick. From what I've heard, she is the Schweitzer of the Republicans. Maybe that means we'll get lucky and the temperament of the election will change.

Kathryn

She might very well be awesome. Something tells me Sillhoutte is going to be storming the gates for her, but, this undercuts the experience argument. The only argument BTW that was kind of working for him.

I know, the response to this is, she's VP not pres but, McCain is 72 years old with health issues. Picking someone who is so utterly unseasoned is irresponsible. I really think this was done out of panic. As stockboy says it's hard to get that point across, but if she makes a major gaffe or something comes out of her closet, I am sure someone who was with McCain last night is going to leak.

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