Veepstakes: Silly season for speculation

By Michael J.W. Stickings

So what does it mean that "senior campaign officials from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign are being dispatched from various locations around the country and are converging in Indianapolis for a 'major event' to take place on Saturday," as NashvillePost.com is reporting?

NOTHING.

SERIOUSLY. NOTHING.*

It looks like Obama and his running mate will make their first joint public appearance in Springfield, Illinois, in Obama's homestate, at the Old State Capitol, where his campaign began, then head off to Indianapolis.

As Ambinder puts it, "we read too much into this at our peril."

* I reserve the right to revise this if Obama selects, say, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh as his running mate. Alas, maybe it is the smoking gun clue we've all been looking for. An event in Indianapolis. Translation: Bayh.

Bowers seems to think that that could very well be the case: "Kind of hard to figure out why Obama would book two major events on Saturday, including one in Indiana, if he wasn't announcing Indiana Senator Evan Bayh as his Vice-Presidential pick that same day." (And I agree, it would be a rather undesirable pick.) He notes, however, that the Obama campaign is denying the NashvillePost.com report.

Adding to the mass hysteria, of which I seem to be partaking (or at least on which I am so excitedly blogging) Le Politico is reporting that Obama is spending the night in Richmond, Virginia as Kaine's guest. So what does that mean?

Just to be consistent: NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL.

Or maybe EVERYTHING. Who knows? Only Obama and a few others, I suppose. And it looks like the major contenders will find out tomorrow afternoon.

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Here are my predictions as of... right now:

Obama -- Biden
McCain -- Romney

But there are those nagging doubts. Always those nagging doubts. Here are my wildcard picks:

Obama -- Clinton
McCain -- Giuliani

I think this a year for big-name, national-celebrity politics. Look at who ran for both parties in the primaries. For the most part they were all big names: Hillary, Obama, Edwards, Biden, Richardson, McCain, Giuliani, Romney, Thompson, etc. Huckabee and perhaps Dodd were the major exceptions.

And I think Obama and McCain will go big with their veep picks. Which means Biden or Bayh for Obama, not Kaine or Sebelius. And which means Romney (or Ridge or Lieberman, however unlikely) for McCain, not Palin or Jindal or Pawlenty or Portman.

But, well, it's the silly season. And I'm full of it, too.

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More Veepstakes here.