Michael Smerconish: A winning veep strategy for McCain

M

EMO

TO: McCain Campaign

RE: VP Selection

Here's some unsolicited advice: Announce your running mate on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

Don't abide by the conventional wisdom, which says you should do it imminently - or immediately after Barack Obama accepts his nomination.

Both would be a mistake.

First, you can't afford to squander what should be a big moment. So far, you've been outmaneuvered in the realm of advance work on the campaign trail. The rookie is teaching the seasoned veteran a thing or two.

Your speech the night he secured the nomination looked as if it was being beamed live from a mortuary. That green background was hideous.

Then you goaded Obama into going abroad, and when he did so, with great fanfare, you had no counterprogramming planned. You blamed him for gas prices, and ridiculed the media assigned to your campaign by giving them luggage tags marked "JV Squad," apparently to draw attention to the fact that the big-name correspondents were overseas.

Then on the day Obama was meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki (who embraced your opponent's endgame), you were in a golf cart with Bush 41, looking as if the two of you were headed for the early-bird special in Boca Raton.

Your VP selection is perhaps the last controlled, almost-guaranteed-successful event you have left. Don't blow it with bad timing or incompetent staging.

Here's the calendar: The Olympics start on Aug. 8 and end on Aug. 24. The next day, the Dems gather in Denver. Their convention ends four days later, on Thursday, Aug. 28, with Obama in front of 75,000 at Invesco Field.

On Sept. 1, the Republicans celebrate Labor Day by beginning their convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Labor Day weekend begins immediately after Obama accepts the nomination at Invesco.

Right now the country is on vacation. The only people tuned in to the presidential race are the talking heads on cable.

The Olympics will then dominate the headlines. Obama will get a huge bump from his Aug. 28 speech, but resist the temptation to try to trump him the following day, the Friday of the Labor Day weekend, when people care only about grilling, swimming and tossing horseshoes.

Monday, Sept. 1, is the day the GOP wisely decided to have the president speak to the convention. Smart. No one will watch. America will be too busy driving home from grilling, swimming and tossing horseshoes.

Which brings us to Tuesday, Sept. 2. Obama has staged his moment. The Dems have gone home. Your convention is under way, and the hype surrounding your veep selection is building. Just as Ronald Reagan didn't select Bush I until the '80 convention was under way in Detroit, and Bush didn't announce Dan Quayle until things were rolling in New Orleans in '88, you too should wait until the convention begins.

OTHERWISE, the GOP convention will be no match for Denver. Has anyone told you that while Obama's speech coincides with the 45th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, your remarks conflict with the start of the NFL season? Just one more reason you need to think outside the box.

As for his veep, Obama is looking for a receding hairline and some foreign-policy credibility. That probably means Joe Biden.

You need some vigor and economic know-how, which isn't your strong suit. That means Mitt Romney. Put aside your differences. You need his profile.

If you can't stomach Romney, take Tom Ridge. This guy has an amazing story: Raised in public housing, he's a Harvard-educated Vietnam veteran. Ex-governor, secretary of Homeland Security, he's a Pennsylvanian with a Central Casting dynamic.

Disregard those who say you need a pro-life running mate. Those who say they'll throw you under the bus on this issue hate Obama, and will never sit home.

You'll lose by running to the right - you can only win by running to the middle. Think Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, not John Hagee and James Dobson.

Write me back. More later. *

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.