So I recently boldly predicted that today was the day that McCain would shock the world with his running mate announcement. The running mate, baring a bolder, more desperate selection, would be Minnesota governor, Tim "A Bridge Fell Down On My Watch" Pawlenty.
It looks like my prediction on timing is a bit off.
Whenever interested on any hits in the political rumor mill, I go to my man Matt Drudge. As of this afternoon the only thing Drudge had posted on the running mate rumors was a Washington Post article suggesting the person on the top of Obama's list is Virginia governor, Tom Kaine.
Shows what I know when it comes to political predictions. My record is so bad I should be hired as a cable news political commentator. It's that bad!
Like a cable news talking head, I'll remain unphased by my errors and barrel ahead with another prediction.
The McCain campaign should be assuming that once they make a running mate announcement, the Obama campaign will do whatever it can to pull the attention back their way. It could be that Obama would announce his pick a day or two later, instead of right after the Olympics and before the Democratic convention. It would have been stupid to announce the rumming mate today.
In order to get the maximum media attention, the McCain people could wait until two days before the Olympics begin on August 8. If they announced next week Wednesday, August 6, it is unlikely Obama would try to compete with the Olympics.
I'm going with that now. McCain will make his selection known on Wednesday, August 6. It will most likely be Tim Pawlenty. *
* This prediction subject to change based on changes in the political landscape or my analysis being grossly wrong.
Next up: Who will Obama pick?
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Ken Honeywell
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This post from the Washingtonian is pretty harsh on McCain for being so computer-illiterate... and makes a good case for why it is so important, including these two paragraphs:
The fact that John McCain hasn’t yet learned how to use the Internet himself puts him not just at odds with most of the rest of the nation but, in fact, with many people in his own age bracket. More than a third of Americans 65 and older use the Internet, according to the May 2008 numbers from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Work by Forrester Research, which uses different age brackets, shows that more than a third of Americans over 55 regularly read blogs and online forums, watch videos, or listen to podcasts. This “Internet thing” isn’t some crazy person’s niche; it will be the driving force behind the next half-century of America’s economic growth. That John McCain isn’t part of that group of “wired seniors” should give us all pause coming into this fall.
The campaign’s online tactics are leaving even its own supporters baffled. David All, a Republican tech strategist, complained to the Washington Post last week that while Barack Obama’s campaign has been building a robust cell phone-based campaign strategy, John McCain’s campaign has never sent All a text message. The campaign’s weekly “McCain Update” e-mail goes out late on Friday evenings, a time when few people are around to read it, and its regular e-mails are so wordy and devoid of actions that the nonpartisan site TechPresident.com, which tracks online efforts, has launched a “McCain e-mail watch” feature. Everyone wants McCain’s campaign to “get” technology—we all have a vested interest in candidates and officials today understanding where the future is heading.
I know I don't time my blog posts very well (Saturday mid-day or early morning), but I'm not running a national campaign. Jeepers!
Actually, I think he will NOT announce until Obama does -- would that be possible/probable? I don't think he would want to go first here...