McCain to announce VP choice today

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain will hold an 11 a.m. CDT rally with his running mate today in Dayton, Ohio, kicking off his "Road to the Convention" tour in front of thousands of supporters at Wright State University.

The identity of McCain's partner remained secret Thursday night even as McCain's campaign arrived in the crucial battleground state in advance of the rally. Next up will be appearances in Pennsylvania and Missouri.

McCain aides have said they hope to use the announcement of the GOP vice presidential candidate to slow the political momentum from the Democratic National Convention, which ended Thursday night.

As the secret held, furious speculation about McCain's choice for a running mate centered Thursday on two conservative Republicans: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Pawlenty abruptly canceled his schedule Thursday afternoon, while reports of Secret Service sweeps of a Romney family member's home in Michigan suggested it was him instead.

[. . .]

Some lobbyists, consultants and Republicans on Capitol Hill said they think Romney is the most likely pick for McCain, in part because he would be a do-no-harm candidate.

"Mitt by far and away is the most logical pick," a GOP consultant said. "Look at the polling nationwide. The only guy that helps at all is Romney."

A poll released Thursday night found Romney had the support of nearly 40 percent of Republican delegates heading to their convention next week in St. Paul, far more than any other contender.

The New York Times/CBS News poll found 30 percent of delegates did not offer a preference, and no other candidate won more than 7 percent support. The breakdown:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was named by 7 percent.

Ridge and Pawlenty were the choice of 4 percent each.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska were cited by 2 percent each.

I hope that I'm wrong about this but I do not believe that McCain will pick Romney. The fact is that Romney and McCain hate each other and while I can see Romney rising above his emotions for the good of the nation I cannot see McCain doing so.

Ever since 2000 John McCain's entire existence has been focused with laser like precision upon upon his all-consuming goal of destroying the conservative movement to avenge the humiliating defeat he suffered in the South Carolina primary. He is simply going to be incapable of picking the conservatives choice as his running mate.

All we really need to know about McCain is that his true first choice, the man he longs to have standing by his side, the man he aches to place one heartbeat away from the presidency, the man he burns to set up as the man who will take the Oval Office after McCain's time there is the far left-liberal Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman. The man that Harry Reid says agrees with him on everything except the war in Iraq.

Sarah Palin would be McCain's best choice. She is a woman and a true conservative and a passionate advocate of drilling for all of our domestic oil reserves, including those in Alaska. Palin would give McCain the perfect cover to change his position on drilling in ANWAR. She could take him on a tour of the proposed drilling site and sit him down with Alaskan wildlife biologists and representatives of the native Inuit people and they could explain to him how the pipeline has actually helped the wildlife and how much good it has done for the native Alaskans and the state's general economy. Then McCain could have a public epiphany and become a full bore advocate for drilling in ANWAR. Cast this way it could be presented as growth rather than a flip-flop.

The presence of an accomplished woman on the ticket would create enormous buzz and quickly wipe out the puny 6 point bump which Obama got from his convention. It would reassure conservatives while at the same time giving disgruntled Hillary supporters another reason to vote Republican this time around.

But McCain will not pick her.

McCain will be McCain and since he can't have Lieberman he will go with the next best thing and pick Tim Pawlenty. For those of you who don't know Pawlenty is one of the leaders of the "Reagan is dead and rotting in the ground, get over him, move on move on, to the LEFT, to the LEFT" wing of the Republican party.

In other words Pawlenty is a McCain Republican and in the absence of the true man of the left the McCain really wants he will find RINO Pawlenty irresistible.

Pawlenty will not deliver Minnesota to the Republicans this November.

Pawlenty will not create the kind of stir which will quickly wipe out Obama's lead.

Pawlenty will not inspire embittered feminists to vote for the GOP this year.

When conservatives look closely at Pawlenty he will sour in their bellies like a pint of tainted cottage cheese and they will have one more reason to stay home this election.

UPDATE:

Sarah Palin may be the one after all. If I was wrong about McCain's inability to rise above himself I'll be the first to appologise.

Here is what the AP is saying:

DENVER - John McCain kept his vice presidential pick a closely guarded secret hours before the high-stakes announcement Friday as top prospects seemed to drop away and speculation moved to darkhorse candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Two GOP strategists close to the McCain campaign said all indications pointed to Palin, 44, a self-styled "hockey mom" and political reformer. The strategists spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by the McCain camp to discuss the matter. There was no confirmation from McCain or his advisers.

With an announcement scheduled in Dayton, Ohio, an associate of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the governor had been informed he is not McCain's pick. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Pawlenty, who had all but ruled himself out.

The problem is that these "McCain insiders" are leaking like sieves but what they're saying isn't what they know to be true, but what they hope to be true. They are attempting to use the leaks to influence McCain's decision.

If McCain keeps to his timetable we will know in around an hour and a half anyway.

Here is a photograph of Gov. Palin at her swearing in. The man holding the Bible for her is her husband, Todd.