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Opinion: John McCain’s VP pick: Who will it be? What about Sarah Palin?

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Lots of rumors flying around early this morning on the identity of Sen. John McCain’s pick for his vice presidential running mate. Focusing especially on Alaska’s fresh Gov. Sarah Palin.

One has former Massachusetts Mitt Romney enroute to Dayton, Ohio, where McCain plans a noon Eastern time rally to announce his selection. No guarantee if that invitation is true, that Romney is the pick, despite his tireless campaigning and fundraising for the Arizona senator for months now.

It would seem a little odd though to have onstage one of the ‘losing’ candidates for VP if you’re announcing someone else.

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The Associated Press has published a report about Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the subject of much recent speculation after he canceled his appointments for the next couple of days, saying he will not be in Ohio today.

Most Americans won’t be in Ohio today, but that would rule Pawlenty out.

Another rumor has a chartered plane from Alaska landing a while ago near Dayton, Ohio. If true, that could mean McCain’s selection could be an outside-the-box game-changer: picking Alaska’s first female governor, Sarah Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five and political maverick in her own right, who went against her state’s GOP establishment in recent years to drive a series of reforms through.

What a surprise that would be if after watching the Democrats debate for nearly two years having a female in the person of Sen. Hillary Clinton at the top or No. 2 spot on their ticket, it was actually the Republicans with a candidate who turns 72 today picking a pro-life woman three years younger than Obama, who’s been a city councilwoman, a tax-cutting mayor and an anti-pork barrel state chief executive.

A former high school athlete (basketball) and beauty queen, she could become the first female vice president and be in position to become the nation’s first female president, as she was her state’s first female governor and the first governor there born since statehood.

But remember last week when Barack Obama was about to announce his pick and we had reports of Obama-Bayh signs being printed in Kansas. It didn’t quite turn out that way.

Stay tuned. We’ll have the announcement right here on The Ticket asap.

--Andrew Malcolm

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