The national press is all a'twitter that the tea leaves are reading like John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, will seek to steal the thunder from Barack Obama's European vacation by naming his vice presidential running mate this week. He has a press conference Thursday, which might provide the forum.
Naturally, the speculation is on who that might be. Rudy Giuliani has been mentioned. Too many wives and unable to carry New York for the ticket. Mitt Romney is a hot prospect who genuinely seems to want it. His Mormonism and eagerness work against him, along with the personal antipathy McCain felt toward him in the primary season. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindahl, the 37-year-old wunderkind, is meeting with McCain this week.
McCain will probably surprise us all, by either not naming a candidate this week, or naming someone that isn't rife with speculation.
Jindahl would be a bold choice. Nearly 10 years younger than Obama, he has been on a steep upward curve since he was named to a major Health, Education and Welfare post in Washington D.C. at age 26. He's also been head of the Louisiana university system and a two-term congressman. He was born in the U.S. of parents from India, is a staunch Catholic and has a wife and two kids.
He is a dynamic, exciting public speaker, and widely touted as the GOP nominee in 2012, whether he's named veep or not. He is a hard core conservative and policy wonk extraordinare. The only knocks on him are his age, lack of foreign policy experience and being from a state McCain will carry anyway.
It would be a very unconventional choice, but would answer Obama's ethnicity and age. It would leave McCain as the unchallenged foreign policy, defense and terrorism expert on either ticket.
Hmmmm . . .
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