So, the rumor mill was abuzz this weekend that McCain would announce his vp choice tomorrow. You would think he would actually give more notice but it'd be a good way for McCain to start off a new week. The McCain camp could dominate the headlines for the rest of the week.
On Sunday, McCain hosts a group of political allies and major fundraisers at his ranch in Sedona, AZ. That's a fact. The rumor is that he's going to use the event to introduce his vice presidential choice to his inner circle, and then, on Monday, introduce the choice to the world.
Nothing could really hurt after living one campaign disaster after another for the past two weeks. Their new desperate tactics tend to belie some underlying panic in the McCain camp.
So why not jump ahead of Obama and ahead of the Olympics and announce his Veep now. Link
The mill is churning out the name of Pawlenty. TNR is now reporting that Tim Pawlenty has cleared his schedule. This could mean a number of things. But it appears he's been out of sight for the entire weekend according to his local paper.
The St. Paul Pioneer-Press's excellent blog, The Political Animal, adds another detail to our earlier nugget about Pawlenty pulling out of some Minnesota events tomorrow:
Pawlenty's public events schedule, release[d] Friday afternoon, listed no public events for Saturday, Sunday or Monday. And he said Thursday that he would be spending some time up north relaxing this weekend but he was a little vague about it -- and McCain is reportedly hosting some politicos at his ranch this weekend.
Link
McCain is going on Larry King tomorrow. Perhaps Pawlenty will show up too and they take calls from the viewers! The McCain camp is really bad at the optics game so I wouldn't put it past them.
I am surprised that Pawlenty is on the short list. He's pretty much a snooze fest and will do nothing to help garner media interest in the McCain camp. I am really hoping that McCain picks Romney because I feel the whole Mormon issue would put Southern states like Georgia and North Carolina in better play. I kind of fear a pick like Carly Fiorina. The Obama campaign already has to jump through hoops when going after McCain, it'd would be a hinderance to have to walk on egg-shells to go after a female veep candidate.
So what do Kossacks think of Pawlenty? I really only know about the whole Minnesota bridge collapse disaster. One thing we can count on is that whoever McCain picks the media will then try and figure out a way that this should force Obama to pick Hillary!
UPDATE:
Tim Pawlenty's wiki page