Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has told USA Today that the VP pick has been made.  But he's not saying who it is.

As the media twists itself into knots wondering who Barack Obama will choose as his Vice Presidential running mate (and when), Obama and company are sitting back and enjoying all the attention lavished on their campaign by the endless procession of speculation.  And the media, for its part, is all too happy to oblige.   Monday it was Joe Biden, Tuesday it was Kathleen Sebelius.  Today, it's Caroline Kennedy.  The media needs something new to talk about every day -- so a new person gets suggested daily, and the 24-hour discussion takes root.

In short, it's genius.

Cross Posted at My Site

In the 1990s, all of America was treated to "a show about nothing," and it was an instant classic.

I thought about Seinfeld when reading all the diaries about who Barack Obama absolutely cannot pick.  Apparently, every single possible VP is no good.

And then it hit me.

Obama - NOBODY 2008

To paraphrase George Costanza, everybody's always picked somebody for Vice President.  Barack Obama should pick nobody.  Literally, nobody.

I did a nslookup and whois search of all of the following domains.  I looked for (1) similar IP or registrant to barackobama.com; (2) other similar features.

Only Sebelius and Biden are all parked at the same place, but only Hagel appears to be set up with server load balancing, i.e. set up to handle a ton of traffic by using different servers.

More on the flip.

That's right you heard it here first right after I received a text message from the campaign with only one symbol: Pi. After all there are few, if any downsides to pie as a running mate. See what I mean over the fold.

Who ya gonna call?

Yes! There's just 5 things you need to figure out the VP choice. I can't promise you'll figure out the exact person from this handy guide, but I can promise you'll be able to filter out the real possibilities from the noise!

1. The media thinks Obama needs a foreign policy/military veep.  Obama does not agree. From the infamous "bitter" fundraiser:

I think a lot of people assume that might be some sort of military thing... Ironically... foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain.

2. Obama does not shift his plan from week to week. Just because this week we're panicked about Georgia, or swift boating, or offshore drilling or whatever, doesn't mean Obama is. His pick will be made with a long view. In other words, anything we/the press read into the choice based on short-term ups and downs is ipso-facto invalid.

3. Whatever he may say about a "team of rivals," Obama will pick a loyalist. (ct'd...)

The 2008 Democratic Convention starts one week from today.  Obama will announce his VP this week, so let's take a look at his schedule.

Monday - Albuquerque, New Mexico

Tuesday - Raleigh, North Carolina

Wednesday - Martinsville, Virginia

Thursday - Richmond, Virginia

Will he tap Bill Richardson today?  Probably not.  He could select Governor Mike Easley on Tuesday, but that's unlikely.  Then we go to Virginia, where Obama has an invitation-only event with Mark Warner on Wednesday night before heading to Richmond on Thursday.

Tim Kaine was mayor of Richmond and practiced law there for 17 years.

A quick diary here guys.  It's a Sunday so I figured I'd drop this in today when there is very little news to report.  I have posted Veepstakes posts earlier on Strategy '08, but have tried to avoid them on DKos (there are enough without me) but now that we're down to the last two or three choices (allegedly), I'll give in.  Not that anyone cares what my opinion is, but here goes anyway.

I'll just say this and say it quickly: of Obama's reputed short-list (and that follows the assumption that the short list that is being reported is actually his short list), I hope he chooses Biden.  I'm not going to attack any other possibility, and would add that Tim Kaine did a phenomenal job on Meet The Press today, better than I've ever seen him.  I will support, donate, and campaign enthusiastically for Barack Obama no matter whom he chooses to be his VP.  

But if it comes to the choices we're told it does, I hope it's Biden.  

Diary authored by my good friend, "WLBD", who is new to DailyKos and has to wait a week before she can post a diary herself. This was too good a diary to keep the world waiting...

Enough already!  Put me out of my misery!!  If I read one more word about the Democratic veepstakes, I may go blind.  If I hear one more word about it, I may go deaf.  If I keep obsessing about it, I may go insane!

We've all heard the names that are being thrown around: Clark! Kaine! Sebelius! Warner! Bayh! Biden! We've read the pundits reading the tea leaves.

But history tells us that candidates often make surprising VP picks.  It seems clear to me that Obama will pick someone unexpected. And that someone will be...ESTES KEFAUVER

I like how much the gamblers disagree with Mr. "Permanent Republican Majority" Karl Rove on who will make an "intensely political choice" for VP:  betters say McCain will pick Romney, a person that McCain's campaign made known during the primaries that they absolutely hated.  They even had a cute yet nasty nickname for him.  I agree with the gamblers on Romney being McCain's pick per his supposed economic prowess.  Plus the wingnuts like that Romney flip-flopped for them on abortion: they like political capitulation.

I also tend to agree that it will be Bayh and that the convention speaking arrangements will just get swapped when Bayh gets picked.  

Go easy on me, this is at least as interesting as seeing Obama swimming in the ocean:

Over the past few weeks, we've spent a lot of time attempting to divine the identity of Obama's VP pick.  And although the Chicago version of Kremlinology has been fun, it's clear that we've been lax in studying the entrails of the sacrificial Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and Rudy Giuliani.  It's time that we focus on McCain's choice.

Analysts generally agree that McCain needs to look for a candidate who meets a few key criteria.  He should go with: A) someone from a major swing state, preferably in the Midwest; B) someone who's not too young -- so as to avoid making McCain look ancient by contrast -- but also; C) someone who isn't that old, so as to avoid making the GOP ticket appear to be a Boca shuffleboard partnership; D) a candidate with serious Washington experience, to bolster the message that the Republicans can be trusted more than the brash young Obama, but also; E) a candidate who's spent some recent time outside of the Beltway, and who can credibly run as an outsider.

It's a tough set of guidelines, one that rules out most contenders.  But there's one clear choice who satisfies all of them -- and while he had appeared to be out of the running for circumstances beyond McCain's control, he's now available for service.  This 54 year-old Ohio native spent a decade in the House, during which time he rose to chair a key committee.  But he left the House a few years ago, retreating to a contemplative life in the heartland of America.

Did you guess Rob Portman?  Well, good try.  But that's not the Buckeye McCain should be tapping.

Robert W. Ney -- the former congressman now officially known as federal prisoner No. 28882-016 -- will complete his sentence Friday, less than two years after pleading guilty to corruption charges stemming from the investigation of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with Congress.

Ney, 54, an eight-term Republican from eastern Ohio, entered a federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va., in March 2007 and transferred to a halfway house in Cincinnati in February, according to federal prison officials. Sentenced to 30 months, Ney will have served 17 1/2 months.

McCain-Ney '08!.  The words roll off the tongue.  

Here is the 4th installment of possible tickets.  Before I have discussed Schweitzer, Richardson, and Chafee.  Below the cut I talk about some of the pros and cons of Russ Feingold taking the #2 position.

Remember when Obama announces his VP in  a few hours, no matter who it is we all should blog that "this is the brilliant, slam-dunk decision that  shows why Barack is the leader that America wants as President"

Also remember that no matter what McCain announces we should all blog, "Oh, what a terrible mistake on McCain’s part. This is the decision that historians will say cost him the election.  I have no doubt the phrase "EPIC FAIL", a term from the video game community, now has a place in political history."

Why?

Because the Republicans will be doing the reverse.

The veepstakes buzz today appears to be that Barack Obama is seriously considering selecting Evan Bayh as his running mate. And while there have been a number of other boomlets for VP candidates in recent weeks, the timing of this one -- coupled with the fact that Bayh, unlike a number of other names in the news, hasn't been assigned a speaking spot at the upcoming Convention -- indicates that the buzz might have the ring of truth.

Regardless of Bayh's merits as a running mate and potential vice-president, his selection would carry with it one immutable and giant negative: the inauguration of Vice-President Bayh would very likely create a new Republican senator. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is a Bush loyalist who has a substantial, 10-15 point lead over Democrat Jill Long Thompson in his bid for reelection.  As much as we'd like to hope for the best, it's improbable that Long Thompson is going to defeat Daniels.  

Now, Indiana Democrats will point out that Long Thompson has done well in fundraising, and that the presence of Bayh on the ticket would undoubtedly help her. But the fact remains that Daniels is more likely than not going to win the race.  And that means that he would have the ability to appoint Bayh's successor in the Senate. Perhaps he'd choose Steve Buyer, a wingnut who advocated for the use of nuclear weapons in Afghanistan. Perhaps he'd name himself.  

In any case, Daniels would not pick a Democrat to replace Bayh. He would pick a partisan Republican. And that means that President Obama would lose a precious Senate seat at a time when he will need every vote that he can get to defeat near-certain filibusters.  Obama wants to push serious energy reform --  but he won't be able to get it unless he can muster 60 votes in the Senate. He wants to enact the Employee Free Choice Act -- but without the vote of every Democrat, and a handful of Northeast Republicans, the bill will die.  

Democrats can expect to come out of November with 55-58 Senate seats, not including Joe Lieberman, who'll probably go along with the Democrats on a number of cloture votes. That puts us in a very good position to beat filibusters on a number of crucial legislative initiatives.  But every seat that goes to a far-right Republican is a body blow to our ability to really take advantage of our majority. Barack Obama needs to ask himself whether Evan Bayh is worth possibly losing meaningful health reform or immigration reform.

He isn't. No VP candidate is. It's not Bayh's fault -- but circumstances dictate that he is most valuable to an Obama presidency as a senator from Indiana. Someone else can fill in as Obama's running mate. And it should be someone whose accession to the vice-presidency doesn't come at the cost of Obama's legislative agenda.

Got this from the Obama campaign a little while ago:

Barack Obama is about to make one of the most important decisions of this campaign -- choosing a running mate.

You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be the first to know his choice.

Sign up today to be the first to know:

[snip]

We all know what's on the line here and it is vital for us to take back the White House.  Another four years of Republican foreign policy and corporate welfare might just break the country to the point of being unrepairable.  This makes the VP choice all the more important to ensure that we can keep the debate focused on the economy, health care and education.  And this is exactly why we need Joe Biden.