Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to celebrate his 72nd birthday on Aug. 29 by naming his running mate at a huge rally in the battleground state of Ohio, Republican sources said.
That’s a week from Friday, and the day after his rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, accepts the Democratic nomination at a 70,000-person spectacular in a Denver stadium.
The campaign has begun building a crowd of 10,000 for Dayton, Ohio, according to an organizer. McCain is scheduled to appear with his running mate at a large-scale event in Pennsylvania shortly thereafter.
No one is ruling out the fact that McCain can change his mind about the date of the announcement because as they put it, "McCain views this as the one decision that he has total, utter, nonnegotiable control over."
This would be a very smart move on McCain's part, he would control the news coverage for the weekend before the Republican National Convention and then have the following week of the convention as well.
With all the chaos expected for the Democratic National Convention, with anti-war protesters, pro-troop supporters planning an event, Hillary Clinton supporters with their parade and rally, recreate 68 with their nonsense and even more, the coverage will not be pure Obama anyway for the Democratic convention.
John McCain can nab the weekend and Obama's whole celebration will be short and bittersweet since much attention will be focused on Clinton, the protests, security, those razor wire fences to house the animals....um... Code Pink, recreate 68 protesters, I mean.
Brilliant strategy!
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