Savage Washington

Luiza Ch. Savage covers political life south of the border. Follow Luiza on Twitter: @luizachsavage

Categories: Savage Washington

Tacky? (Y/N?)

by Luiza Ch. Savage on Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:58pm - 0 Comments

Would it be tacky for John McCain to leak word of his vice-presidential nominee in the middle of or just ahead of Barack Obama’s convention speech tonight as Drudge is suggesting he might? Or is that just clever politics?

Tags: Democratic Convention, US politics

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http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

No more tacky than erecting Greek columns (Temple of Obama!) to give a speech in front of. I really am hoping Obama comes out in toga but that would be too much to ask for.

I think it would be stupid to announce this evening because the story tomorrow is going to be all about Obama. I think McCain campaign is just stringing media along like Obama did with his v-p announcement.
Luiza Ch. Savage

I agree McCain would get better coverage rolling it out on Friday, and closing the door on the Dem Convention story.
Blues Clair

My my, those Greek columns sure got Republicans supporters all riled up. ZerObama is the One.
Paul Wells

Tacky, hardly a hanging offense, and in my view not helpful enough to be worth doing.
Mike G

I don’t think it’s as tacky as it is a lack of thought. Does the McCain team really think they’re going to take away from the Obama media frenzy by rolling out the VP while the cameras are elsewhere?

Friday or Saturday would make a lot more sense to me. Or even, perhaps, this past Monday or Tuesday, as people were wondering if the Democratic convention was really going to go anywhere.

From the looks of this Time interview that popped up today, McCain isn’t exactly comfortable. It’s getting to the point where I half expect the next press release to just be three paragraphs of bitter sarcasm about how everyone likes Obama because he’s “cool” or something. A Thursday VP announcement seems more like desperation than strategy.

In any case, I would bet money that the Republican VP candidate will be Romney, which also won’t garner much in the way of headlines, except I suppose to point out that he didn’t have much other choice.
Mike T.

it risks headlines of “McCain tries to interrupt Obama with VP announcement’ rather than “McCain announces VP”
Dot

No sign of a tin can and string being erected outside of McCain’s home, yet. Who needs text messaging?
Geiseric the Lame

stupid. it would give the convention that much more context and kill what’s left of their air time. its not like drawing a smiley face on the spectre that’s already there is going to rattle any more cages. may as well make it a bull’s eye.

tacky would be the Democrats starting a false rumour.
http://mikeanddean.blogspot.com Dean P

It’s silly–networks will be paying attention to Obama. He’ll get a few mins of coverage but it’s not like the networks will pan away to cover that rather than Obama’s speech.

And it opens up the Republicans to the very meritorious charge of dirty tricks, even if it fails.

Also: all those criticizing Obama’s greek columns would do well to look the ones that Dubya gave his speech in front of in 2004 . . .
Neil

Absolutely, McCain should drop some hints starting this evening, just so the media doesn’t faint at the DNC love-in. He should start tonight, short-list it by tomorrow afternoon, then announce it at the RNC. Take the wind out of Obama’s sails, I say.

Pawlenty, Lieberman, Romney, Rice, Powell, Jindal, it’s all good.
Geoff

Bit risky. Given a choice, are the networks really going to cut away from the acceptance speech of the first black nominee ever on the anniversary of MLK’s speech?

And if they don’t, doesn’t McCain look second rate next to Obama?
Blues Clair

Geoff, good point. We know how well it went for McCain (green screen speech) the last time he tried to preempt a major Obama speech. Then again, I suppose it is good (as Neil points out) that McCain is even being brought up in the news today, besides in connection to attacks by his opponents.