Wednesday, August 27, 2008

McCain Decision Soon   [Byron York]

I'm told McCain's inner circle is having a final meeting on the vice presidential issue. It's not entirely clear whether it is to go through the choices again and reach a final decision, or whether it is for McCain to inform his inner circle of his choice. In any event, it looks like the decision will be set in stone today.

It has to be. McCain and his choice will appear at a big rally at 11 a.m. in Dayton, Ohio on Friday. Just to make things work, staff and Secret Service and the candidate himself or herself will have to know about it a bit ahead of time.

And that brings up the question of whether McCain's choice will step on Obama's appearance at Invesco Field Thursday night. If McCain makes the choice today, and things are in motion tomorrow, and the choice will be publicly unveiled, in person, at 11 a.m. Friday — well, that means word might leak out late in the day on Thursday. That doesn't mean McCain's inner circle will leak it, but it does mean that at the very least the logistics will get out, pointing toward one candidate or another.

McCain has made it clear he does not want to reveal the choice on Thursday. That's Obama's day, and it wouldn't be very productive for McCain to try to horn in on it. So there certainly won't be an announcement then. But word might well get out, in effect stepping on Obama's night. My guess is that the news networks will still devote most of their programming to the Democratic event, especially if the McCain news doesn't come out until early evening. But it's going to come out, and if McCain sticks to the plan to unveil the nominee in Dayton Friday, the conflict he wanted to avoid will probably materialize.

08/27 03:29 PMShare