If McCain picks someone really intresting, it could get a lot of coverage. Jeb Bush (let's hope), Bobby Jindal, or Joe Lieberman would get a lot of press.

If it's Mitt Romney, or that guy from MN, less so.

It's also McCain's birthday that day. No doubt he'll want the stadium to sing happy birthday to him. I don't know if putting focus on his age is a good idea.

Also I'm not sure if declaring a solid date is a good idea either because it gives no reason for the MSM to play guessing games for the time being and the Dems will get most of the coverage during their Convention.

But given that McCain wants to fill the 10,000 seat arena, I guess this was the only way he could go.

It's in Ohio but it doesn't mean it's Portman, because there is also plan to head to Pennsylvania shortly after with his VP, so basically it's just playing to the key swing state crowd.

McCain will try to control that whole week leading up to the RNC convention, though the convention and then the bump after the convention (which he is trying to block from the Dems Convention). Basically two weeks of solid Republican coverage 60 days out of the election...

On a more serious note, I think this could be tricky for Obama.

He has built up such frenzy with the never-ending VP guessing, he'll never be able to make everyone happy.

And if he picks someone perceived or pronounced another lightweight, three things will happen: some deflation at his base, a constasting VP pick by McCain and the Battle of Celebrities goes into Round Two.

Bump shmump.
The convention, veep, primary, whatever bump only matters if it lasts. Does anyone think that the Republican convention and McCains veep choice will over shadow Obama's choice and the Dem convention this year??
(the veep choice might but definitely not the convention)

What matters is how the conventions set the stage for the rest of the campaign and the quality of the veep pick.

The real reason he is announcing on Friday is because it is labor day weekend and people will still be talking about it Mon/Tues instead of Bush/Cheney's convention speech.

McCain isn't at all exciting. This transparent attempt to steal Obama's thunder is probably going to go over just as well as his cottage cheese and green jello salad speech when Obama declared victory in the primary.

Also worth noting that it would be the 3rd anniversary of Katrina. We've all seen the picture of Bush and McCain with a birthday cake while New Orleans was under water.

Does McCain want to share coverage with Katrina:Three Years Later specials?

Somehow, I seriously doubt Eric Cantor or Rob Portman will cut into Obama's lead. I'm mean who? Exactly.

The Republican VP choices this year are especially dull. Unless McCain picks Fiorina or Palin.

August 29th was also the day that Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, while John McCain and George W. Bush was laughing it up on the airport tarmac with a huge birthday cake in front of them.

An American city was lost on that day, and the Bush administration was slow in responding. So was John McCain. The only press release his Senate office released on that day was about how to make air travel more efficient.

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=ff6cf905-aaea-46f7-a2f4-72f82dc96ccb&Region_id=&Issue_id=

And no speeches in that month of August as well:

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.Speeches&ContentRecordType_id=1eaaf04e-178c-488c-912e-38b50ac105b2&Region_id=&Issue_id=&MonthDisplay=8&YearDisplay=2005

And no articles about the victims of Hurricane Katrina in August or September either.

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.Speeches&ContentRecordType_id=1eaaf04e-178c-488c-912e-38b50ac105b2&Region_id=&Issue_id=&MonthDisplay=8&YearDisplay=2005

He finally comes out with an opinion editorial on September 16th, 22 days after Hurricane Katrina hit, about the need for first responders.

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.OpEds&ContentRecord_id=7c92e03f-cb1f-4739-b157-3b78762db7e9&Region_id=&Issue_id=

And there are no floor statements about the victims of Hurricane Katrina, except for one on September 13th, 19 days after Hurricane Katrina hit, about the need for first responders again.

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.FloorStatements&ContentRecord_id=1dda6819-6e75-4cb6-a363-a9d5c94540c4&Region_id=&Issue_id=

Senator Obama was there on September 5th, when Presidents Clinton and Bush announced their Hurricane Fund:

http://obama.senate.gov/news/050905-bush_clinton_an/

He went to visit the Katrina evacuees on September 5th at the Houston Astrodome:

http://obama.senate.gov/news/050905-obama_says_hurr/

He also spoke about the inequities suffered by the victims of Hurricane Katrina in a floor speech on September 8th:

http://obama.senate.gov/news/050908-katrinas_racial/

Obama also continued to address the need for addressing the urban poverty that stopped Katrina victims from evacuating:

http://obama.senate.gov/news/050912-judicious_obama/

On September 2nd, Obama held a press conference, asking his constituents to help out the victims of Hurricane Katrina:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050902-obama_to_hold_p/

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050905-obama_visits_hu/

He also created legislation to help keep families together in an event of national disaster:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050907-obama_introduce/

He introduced a bill to establish a national emergency volunteer corps to help the medical community in the wake of national disasters:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050908-obama_introduce_1/

He also demanded that society's most vulnerable, such as the disabled, children, and elderly, be taken care of in national disasters with proper emergency preparedness plans:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050912-obama_says_disa/

He also introduced Hurricane Katrina Oversight legislation with Senator Coburn:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050914-obama_coburn_to_1/

Senator Obama also responded to President Bush's speech in New Orleans:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050915-obama_response/

It's clear that Senator Obama took action immediately after the disaster hit New Orleans and its residents in comparison to John McCain who ate cake on that day. Is McCain going to eat cake the next time a disaster hits on his birthday?

My god, I hope they spend two weeks talking about McCain. He won't have a prayer.

I agree with earlier post-
McCain is going to announce VP in high profile event on his 72nd BIRTHDAY?

which will reinforce that 72 year old cancer survior McCain won't serve out his term.

what a horrible idea.

With today's SurveyUSA poll showing Obama only 2 points ahead in Minnesota, confirming Quinnipiac's and Rasmussen's polls with Obama ahead 2 and 4 points, Pawlenty might swing the state.

And with Siena's poll today showing Obama collapsing even in NY (down to an 8 point lead in a state Kerry took by 18), Barack needs to start fighting back or he'll be finished off by mid-September like Dukakis was.

the freeper connection:

The blogosphere is also lighting up with questions about the story Mr. McCain told at the forum — and many times previously — about a moment when a guard in his prison camp in Hanoi etched a cross in the dirt in front of him on a Christmas day. Mr. McCain related the story movingly at the forum, almost choking up, and added a line that he had not used before publicly: "For a minute there, there was just two Christians, worshiping together.

But some in the blogosphere are noting that this scene is strikingly similar to one painted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, writing about his days in the gulag, and are questioning whether it actually happened to Mr. McCain. Mark Nicholas, a Democrat from Montana, has this. And over at the liberal DailyKos, they are noting that conservatives at Free Republic first raised doubts about the story in 2005.

NY Times, The Caucus

It doesn't matter what McCain does...he is not going to run away from George Bush. Most of the VP steam will be blown off by Obama's great speech. Trust me, McCain's VP pick will only matter in the State the VP hails from.

McCain had the last week for himself, yet, he can't seem to break beyond 45% in the poll. I just don’t see how he can get a bump after convention.

Amacus et al.,

Check-out http://www.progressivepunch.org :

Except of the Biden's home-state's BIG industry (banking), Biden is a crap-load more progressive/liberal than Obama. While Biden violates both the 'no Senator' and the 'no corporatist' rules, the biggest reason not to choose Biden is that Biden is a better fit for Office of the President than Obama is.

(Obama's actual voting record places him with such luminaries as MacCaskill, Lieberman and Landrieu.)

In truth, crap-weasels like Clinton and Bayh are better matches for Obama. They are far shittier choices for America BUT there is still time and opportunity for Obama to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Side Note: SurveyUSA has trended more towrads the Republicant in every race they poll. While never the outlier . . . They sre showing a bias. Start comparing their Senate polls to others . . . Secondly, corporate pollsters have a BIG incentive to turn this race into a horse-race. Poll question construction is polarized across the industry . . .

Veep and poll chasing are the pretend news-like things of slow news cycles. Dwelling will turn you into bat-shit crazy . . . Maybe even a farging Republican . . . BEWARE! That way lays sure insanity.

A great example of McCain's followership.

he's announcing in ohio, apparently. So im betting that means its Rob Portman, the guy no one in Ohio has ever heard of outside of his congressional district.

I'm betting on portman, just because it makes no sense to announce a non-ohio native from ohio unless it fits in with the theme or overall message of your campaign, and we all know McCain doesn't have one of those.

i could be (and probably am) wrong though...

I think it will work to McCain's advantage. He'll take some of the spotlight from Obama and his sure to be amazing speech, and even if he loses a little of the traditional VP pick bump, he's heading into his own Convention, so he's only on the upswing. That sucks.