Veep Selection: Don't Blow Your Load

I personally am not buying into suggestions that McCain will announce his Veep this week. It offers him absolutely no advantage to do so. Not only would it lead to more snarky Daily Show et. all. pieces on how while Obama is off touring his "birthplace" (being the messiah and all. har har.) McCain is desperately trying to stay in the spotlight at home, it would render useless the one real advantage Republicans have right now:

Our convention is second.

The Democrats' convention is before ours, which means Obama absolutely must select a running mate by the end of Denver. It doesn't make sense for him to announce it before- he's doing a fine job of staying in the media and seems to be able to hold his own in battleground states for now, he doesn't need a Veep pick to get press or bolster support. McCain can wait until after Obama's pick is public, choose a runningmate that will counter Obama's, and still have some time left over before the convention.

I'm not saying McCain should make this most important decision based on who Obama picks (and I hope he doesn't), but I wouldn't put it past Obama to make his Veep an obvious response to McCain's too-early pick. Many undecided voters are saying they can't say for sure whether or not they'd vote McCain until his Veep is announced, and the best strategy would be to pick someone who can help him win this election and counter Obama. We can wait the Dems out on this one, and I see no reason why we wouldn't.

And for the record, increased press coverage only increases the number of innocuous missteps you say on record that get blown way out of proportion. Obama can take a few "hey buddy, you actually DIDN'T have a hand in passing that legislation you just claimed" missteps, McCain can't. He'll fall off a stage or pose with a jeep eventually. We only need to wait.