Now that Barack Obama is embarked on his glitzy global tour, having already won the Nuri al-Maliki primary, the McCain people are quite unhappy with their predicament. During all those weeks when they were baiting Obama as a rookie with scant war-zone exposure, they apparently never figured out that, if Obama did go, he would surely garner an outsize share of public attention. So now, until Obama returns home, they're stuck with the onerous challenge of competing for the spotlight.
Thus far, they have been reduced to bitter fuming (aide Mark Salter said yesterday, "'The One' went to Europe, and homage must be paid"); ahistorical sputtering (McCain said yesterday that Obama has "no military experience whatsover," conveniently forgetting that Ronald Reagan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson didn't have any, either); and fact-free huckstering (a new McCain TV ad blames Obama for "rising prices at the pump," even though, in the world of factual reality, gas prices have been on the rise for 10 years, sparked largely by competing consumer demand in countries such as China and India - and besides, even if one is to accept the erroneous premise that U.S. senators control gas prices, hasn't McCain been a senator 18 years longer than Obama?).
But perhaps their most tantalizing bid for the spotlight concerns the choice for running mate. Yesterday, the veteran Washington columnist Bob Novak wrote that he had been told, by McCain campaign contacts, that the veep nominee would be publicly unveiled by the end of this week. Novak is derided in some quarters as "the prince of darkness," and liberal readers don't like him, but he does have good sources in the GOP. On the other hand, McCain sources (presumably, different ones) have hinted elsewhere that this week might be a bad time for a veep launch, since Obama's media footprint might squash theirs anyway.
Taken together, however, it's clear that the McCain people have pondered the idea. How else would they get on the public radar this week? And a glance at the calendar shows there are few other opportune times. The summer Olympics will suck up media oxygen from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24, and then comes the Democratic convention, from Aug. 25 to Aug. 28. If McCain waits on the veep announcement until the Democrats are done, he'll have only a four-day window until his own convention begins - and that window coincides with Labor Day weekend. And since there's always the possibility Obama might want to announce his own choice during one of the few remaining weeks before the Olympics, that factor further narrows McCain's timing options.
Therefore, just in case McCain decides to spring a surprise this week, here's my own list of the top-five possibilities. Like every other observer who is outside the tight circle of veep vetters, I have absolutely no inside info. But you don't have to be Charlie Black (the longtime Washington lobbyist-fixer who serves as McCain's uber strategist) to conjure the ideal GOP running mate resume. It's merely someone who can galvanize the Christian right, turn on the swing voters, compensate for McCain's self-confessed weakness on economic issues, shake things up by putting a new face on the Republican party (either via gender, or as a reputed reformer), and perhaps even help tilt a blue state. Quite a tall order.
So, in alphabetical order:
Marsha Blackburn, a three-term congresswoman from Tennessee. Playing the gender card would create buzz. She's a conservative Southerner (a staunch opponent of taxes, spending, abortion) who would help galvanize the conservative base, and perhaps help McCain among women in general. Foreign policy is not her forte, but McCain figures he has that covered.
Bobby Jindal, the Indian-American governor of Louisiana. He'd be a racial breakthrough for the GOP, potentially a big help in the year of Obama. He's a pro-life Catholic, which could help McCain with the conservative base, and generally with Catholics, traditionally a swing electorate. A former congressman who was elected governor last year on a reform agenda, he can talk fluently about domestic issues that tend to bore McCain, such as health care. McCain is slated to meet with Jindal this week, for what that's worth.
Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska. As the first woman to run that state, she's another potential mold-breaker. Like Blackburn, she has conservative credentials for the base (she has signed a lot of budget cuts, and she's a lifetime NRA member). She's enormously popular at home, typically drawing support from 85 percent of the citizenry. She's colorful and young (42). She eats mooseburgers, rides snowmobiles, amd smoked pot when it was legal in Alaska. And not that this matters at all, but she's a former beauty queen; in the words of conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg, she might help draw the voters of "visually unimpaired heterosexual men."
Mitt Romney. A safe pick, assuming that rascally flyboy McCain can find a comfort level with him. Romney can talk domestic economics far better than McCain. He's also popular with a lot of the evangelicals and Bush money donors who have yet to warm to McCain. Business leaders like him. He's also has family roots in Michigan, a traditionally blue state that McCain would dearly love to snatch from Obama. And he has never suffered a bad hair day.
John Thune. Again, if sex appeal on a McCain ticket is a necessity, then remember that this guy is as handsome as Romney. The reliably conservative senator from South Dakota sent Tom Daschle packing in 2004, and he reputedly has a better personal relationship with McCain than Romney does. And, at age 47, he's 14 years younger than Romney - a potential asset, if one assumes that McCain will put a premium on youth in a year when "change" is the predominant mantra.
All told, if McCain does choose one of my fave five, I want points for perspicacity.
On the other hand, you should know that, back in 2000, I never once imagined that George W. Bush would choose Dick Cheney. And when he did, I lauded Cheney as "a master of the S-word: sober, serious, solid, stable, steady, substantive and seasoned." How's that for full disclosure?