Rich Lowry:

NR has learned that the McCain campaign has been calling key state GOP officials around the country the last couple of days and sounding them out about the consequences of a pro-choice VP pick. The campaign is asking about the reaction of conservative grass-roots activists to such a pick and whether a pro-choicer can be sold to them. This is an indication that the McCain campaign is serious about the possibility of a pro-choice VP nominee and that McCain leaving the door open to Tom Ridge last week may not have been merely a friendly nod to a longtime supporter. In this scenario, McCain’s emphatic pro-life statements Saturday night and his pledge that he’ll run a “pro-life administration” would have been partly an attempt to reassure conservatives in the event of a pro-choice pick.

[UPDATE - YellowJacket]: Erick at RedState tries to allay the fears, and argues that there’s no way McCain and his advisers would make such a dastardly decision.

Apparently the rumors from this morning are true, McCain will announce his VP selection in Dayton, Ohio on August 29th, the day after Obama accepts the Democratic nomination.

The date isn’t much of a surprise, considering there’s all of three days between the two conventions. But the location may tell us something.

The speculation is all about Romney and Pawlenty. I don’t think its Romney for one main reason. If McCain was choosing Romney the announcement would be in Michigan. No question. Its Romney’s home state, his biggest win from the primaries, and Michigan is probably the best shot McCain has other than New Hampshire of picking off a blue state from 2004.

So, the Dayton announcement means its not Romney. Ridge is likely out too, an announcement of him would almost certainly be in Pennsylvania. Likewise an Eric Cantor announcement in Virginia. What about Pawlenty?

Well, the convention itself is in St. Paul, so there isn’t much reason to do the announcement in Minnesota as well. Ohio is the most important swing state. Its a conventional location to announce a conventional choice, and Pawlenty is the conventional choice, the frontrunner for the VP nod from the beginning.

It could also be Lieberman. He’s already a national figure, and he’s not tremendously popular in his home state of Connecticut.

Or it could be one of the two oft-cited former Ohio congressmen who are on multiple short lists for VP: Rob Portman and John Kasich. Most of the speculation has been around Portman, but Kasich has gotten a bit of attention as well. An Ohio announcement makes sense with an Ohioan on the ballot.

So, my prediction is: it will either be Pawlenty, Portman, or Kasich.

They are clearly in desperation mode:

The Obama camp and its media water-carriers are seriously accusing John McCain of “cheating” in his appearance over the weekend at Rick Warren’s Saddleback church forum because he was in his motorcade when the program started– and then escorted to an empty room without media hook-ups. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell spread the unsubstantiated rumor that somehow McCain heard Obama’s questions while on his drive. The nutroots went, well, nuts. The NYTimes piled on

The Obamaniacs are starting to get a taste of reality.  They have been worshipping a false idol and like the cultists that they are they have become completely divorced from reality and are turning to any excuse possible to convince themselves that Obama is still indeed the second coming.  It’s complete denial mode.  It’s funny too because I was out of town at a friend’s house the night of the forum and as soon as it was over I turned to him and predicted that the left would accuse McCain of cheating because he did so well.

For us normal individuals not dripping with leftist insanity, we know there are two reasons why McCain outshined Obama Saturday night.  One, Obama had no teleprompter.  As has been pointed out time and time again Obama can deliver a hell of a speech when he’s rehearsed and practiced it over and over, but when his feet are on the fire he chokes.  The other reason for McCain’s success is that his answers were genuine.  It’s easy to be comfortable and answer even difficult questions with clarity when you know where you stand on the issues.  Obama was doing every song and dance he could not to say the wrong thing and create another 30 second ad against him because he knows his positions aren’t mainstream.

So it seems the Democratic smear machine is now out in full battle gear.  We can expect a lot more of this over the next two and a half months.  The DNC will use every dirty trick in the book, but accuse us of it around every corner, to win this election.

Will likely be tomorrow.

My money is on Sam Nunn.  Could also be Joe Biden or Kathleen Sebelius.  But the list of possibilities is still quite long.

The Senate Republican Conference has hired Sean Hackbarth as their new online communications guru. Sean is one of the Internet’s original bloggers, having started his blog, The American Mind way back in 1999. Sean and I worked together on the Fred Thompson campaign, he’s a dedicated conservative and will be a tremendous asset to the conference.

You’ll notice two different banners on this new site design.  The front page shows, obviously, the Capitol building.  If you click on a specific article and bring it up on its own page, there is a different one… for the uninitiated, the man on the left is William F. Buckley Jr (the founder of National Review magazine), and the man on the right is Barry Goldwater (former Senator and author of “Conscience of a Conservative”).  If you don’t know who the man in the middle is, you probably shouldn’t be meandering about the blogosphere.

Marc Ambinder has the details about an Ohio Republican official who put up information on his blog about a major McCain rally on August 29th in Dayton, before pulling it.

Recall my post the other day about John Kasich’s visit to Africa with Cindy McCain.

I think Kasich would be an absolutely stellar choice.  Rob Portman is the other Ohioan on the short list.