W hile Barack Obama was trying to avoid rhetorical quagmires in the Middle East, John McCain’s flirtations with potential running mates was starting to look more like heavy petting.
As demonstrated by the posse of media bigfoots covering his grand tour this week, Obama won’t need a vice presidential pick to create buzz.
In fact, the coverage has been so ecstatic that he needs to be more worried about Obama fatigue than Obamania.
Just to test how far the prestige of the TV pooh-bahs has fallen in the era of cable and Internet news, imagine Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley leaving their anchor chairs to scamper after a candidate on a campaign trip — even one to France.
Not likely.
But in light of all the frenzied coverage, it won’t matter whom Obama picks for his wingman, as long as it’s someone sufficiently safe and boring. No Republicans (no, not even Chuck Hagel). No women. No minorities. Just white dudes.
That’s why Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed may want to pick up several more blue suits when he gets back from overseas with the junior senator from Illinois.
Obama can roll out a well-vetted, very conventional running mate like Reed during the run-up to the Democrats’ all-star nomination spectacular in Denver.
Reed could edge out on stage left and give a little wave sometime between the releasing of the 10,000 doves and the opening set from Kanye West.
Many voters would be stunned to find out about Reed, but only in the sense that they would not know that he or his charming home state had existed before.
The salient facts are that Reed is a West Point graduate who served in Vietnam and is considered the not-crazy Jim Webb.
There would be a day of analysis from The New York Times et al heralding the pick as statesmanlike and evidence of Obama’s foreign policy chops. By day two, Reed could go back into the cupboard.
But the choice of a running mate is a huge question for McCain.
There is the practical consideration that if he were successful, McCain would be the oldest man in history to take his first oath of office. And with a medical record that could fill a footlocker, McCain might tell his vice president not to take any long vacations.
That means McCain has to have a plausibly presidential running mate, not just a buzz generator.
William McKinley picked Teddy Roosevelt as his running mate in 1900 partly for the sake of buzz. Young T.R. offered New York votes and access to the youthful progressive movement, both of which no doubt heated up telegraph wires across the land.
But McKinley was a second-term president who wasn’t expecting to be assassinated after giving a trade speech in Buffalo.
Non-incumbent and “older than dirt” McCain can’t afford a risk.
That’s why McCain’s hush-hush trip to Louisiana on Wednesday was probably to let Gov. Bobby Jindal down easy. Jindal might not send a thrill up Chris Matthews’ leg like Obama does, but a young, Indian-American conservative Catholic would cause a stir.
Jindal, though, needs some more experience, as evidenced by his bumpy start in Baton Rouge.
That’s also probably the reason that McCain shouldn’t pick Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. A young woman who has brought a reformer’s zeal to Alaska government, Palin makes an attractive pick.
But like Jindal, she needs time to gather gravitas.
In the quest for an able chief executive who still vibes youthful energy, McCain has probably already settled on Mitt Romney.
The former Massachusetts governor oozes business success and a more wholesome version of the good life.
While Romney, who swung left to govern in New England, may rankle some in the conservative base, he knows how to make the conservative case in a sound-bite society.
Folks close to the campaign see Romney as the man to beat, but they also freely admit that there is no predicting John McCain.
McCain-Lieberman, anyone?
