Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Veepstakes: No Clear Winner Yet

Earlier today the blogospheric buzz was all about Biden. That was until Biden himself threw a crowbar into the gears of the e-rumour machine.

From ABC's Political Radar:

As Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was leaving his house in Wilmington this afternoon, he slowed down and said to the gathered news reporters outside his home: "Hey guys, I'm not the guy. See ya."
Members of the news media camped outside his Wilmington home today as speculation swirled that Biden is on Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's short list of vice presidential candidates.
I've generally avoided covering the Veepstakes since up until now most coverage of the topic has been pure speculation largely based on disinformation campaigns run by both candidates' campaigns. The Biden buzz though made a certain amount of sense. He does have the experience and the foreign policy chops that Obama lacks. However he also represents a solidly blue state and has a hard time staying on message. I'm guessing that Obama plans on using the VP slot to cement the support of a swing state and of the candidates reportedly on the short list that points to VA or PA.

I've said before that I think McCain will choose former FL governor Charlie Crist for roughly the same reason. Crist has a compliments McCain fairly well. He has a good record as a fiscal conservative, anti-abortion, well spoken, and more telegenic than McCain. All of whuch Mccain needs to shore up the support of the base and help him compete against Obama. This is of course pure speculation on my part. But I'm at least willing to put my money where my mouth is. As to whether or not I'm right it looks like the answer to the first part of the question will become clear this week. As for the second part its expected that McCain will announce his choice the day after the DNC ends.

That'll will officially be the end of the preseason and from here on out the campaigns and their collected special interests will start playing hardball. Those will indeed be interesting times.