So reports the Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman, who is as well sourced in McCain World as any reporter.
We don't know much about Governor Palin.
But what we seem to know so far, we like.
(note the Fred Barnes quote halfway through the article)
Hey, in a change election there ain't nothing wrong with two serious reform candidates.
The idle and ill-informed McCain VP speculation by the press continues into the new day.
Noted: Morning Joe is OUT OF CONTROL.
Dance, dance, dance little press monkeys!
Noted: Of course, we're dancing too.
Chuck Todd is reporting.
And we want to give Chucky-T a big, wet kiss.
GOP pundit strategist Mike Murphy might be right: Team McCain might be "all tactics and no strategy."
But whatever Team McCain is or is not, you have to give the campaign credit because on this night - Of All Nights - they have managed to whip the Gang of 500 into an absolute frenzy over who McCain is going to select as his VP.
Frenzy.
The idle and uninformed speculation among the press corps is INTENSE.
We're even getting emails asking, "So, who will McCain choose?"
And we don't know sh*t.
We can almost hear the clink of Crystal City scotch glasses to the toast, "Dance you press monkeys."
The day this little gem created by some former McCain ad men hit the air.
McCain ad men.
Of course, this would be the absolute barest whisper of what the DNC would throw at a McCain-Romney '08 ticket.
And Mitt-Flop don't even deliver Michigan.
Why is he a good pick again?
In October 2007, while John McCain was still HEMORRHAGING political support, Tim Pawlenty flew to Manchester, NH to do a political event on McCain's behalf in Fairlee, VT.
Vermont.
The state with negative electoral votes.
For a campaign event that took Governor Pawlenty well over 10 hours to complete if you include fly and drive time.
But, as Mr. Pawlenty was finally being dropped off at his hotel after a very looong day, he turned to Team McCain's Jim Barnett and said, "I'd like to do more, please let me know how I can do that."
That was in October of 2007.
When 3/4ths of the Republican Party was saying, "John? John Who?"
We know that this happened because we were in the car with the Governor on that trip.
Bottom line - Tim Pawlenty is qualified to be Vice President for any number of reasons.
As are most of the folks rumored to be on McCain's short list.
But we hope that Pawlenty's respect for, and loyalty to, John McCain puts the Minnesota Governor over the top in the Veepstakes.
Fingers. Crossed.
----------
(UPDATED) A longtime reader writes to remind us that Tim Pawlenty is the "clear" choice of McCain loyalists who have ridden the '08 campaign roller coaster from the beginning.
Don't we know it.
Unfortunately, it looks like we don't have as much juice with the American Hero as we thought we did.
In any event, we'd love to see a Tim Pawlenty pick.
Fighting Joe would be good too (although several Republicans we trust say that the pick would be a disaster).
Mitt Romney, now that WOULD be a disaster.
But what about "none of the above"?
We really have no idea.
But we bet we find out within 12 hours.
Right about when Obama hits the stage at Mile High.
Weather.com has the first part of Denver's forecast.
Drudge.com has the second part of Denver's forecast.
(barring unforeseen weirdness)
1. Does Barack Obama go yard on what Clinton served up tonight and deliver in his speech on Thursday?
2. Who does the America Hero pick as his VP? And does it stomp all over Obama's speech on Thursday?
Let the ill informed chatter begin.
Read the not shocking at all news here.
(and on Page One?!!??).
Any guess as to who we think Johnny Mac should pick as his running mate?
The American Hero & The Accomplished Chief Executive, Fresh Face Member of Sam's Club.
In 2008.
It's a messaging winner.
Believe it.
CW has hopped back on the "Mitt will be the VP" train.
We have no idea.
There are less than 5 people who really do, and they ain't talking to us (and, let's be honest, they're probably not talking to you either).
But we do know this.
Our 11-year old sister confirmed it to us this afternoon.
Right before she told us that Colonel Mustard committed the murder in the library with the candlestick.
And right after she told us that Bono is "definitely not" overrated.
But seriously...
GMP1 understands that whoever breaks the VP pick story will forever be known by the Gang of 500 as the Gang of 500 member with the "most kick ass sources" within McCain/Obama world.
Or something like that.
And, we're sure that's important.
Probably.
But, in the 24/7 Information Age that we all live in, "speed" really is cheap.
"Smart" much less so.
So don't worry Chris Cillizza, we're going to continue reading you whether you break "The Big News" or not.
And that's no snark.
Everyone is just positively buzzing about this VP story.
That's not the purpose of this post.
The purpose of this post is to point out that John Harwood just told Chris Matthews that (we're paraphrasing here): McCain's reputation for straight talk would be imperiled by putting Mitt Romney on the ticket.
And then Harwood ticked off the times during the Republican Primary that McCain claimed Romney was full of sh*t.
Well, Romney is full of sh*t. And his selection as VP would imperil McCain's straight talk narrative.
Remember, the "Hey, I'm business savvy!" message that won Romney the Michigan Primary was Mitt 4.0 (at least).
There were 18 months of "other" Romney messages before that. And all of them, including business savvy Romney, had healthy doses of "panderer" and "flip-flopper" baked in the message.
And absolutely everyone knows it.
That's a little straight talk. About someone who has very little to do with straight talk.
Get it?
