McCain's Timetable for Choosing a Running Mate

Insiders in John McCain's Republican presidential campaign expect him to make his choice of a vice presidential running mate during the first half of August, about two or three weeks before the start of the GOP nominating convention in Minnesota.

McCain is said to believe that announcing his VP early would enable the media to examine the candidate well before the delegates convene and give McCain and his advisers time to address any criticisms before the convention. McCain wants to avoid the messy rollout of Dan Quayle as George H.W. Bush's running mate in 1988, which came as a last-minute announcement and resulted in the little-known Quayle facing a barrage of criticism that the Bush inner circle wasn't prepared for.

One bright spot is that GOP insiders think McCain has a solid roster of possible vice presidential candidates to choose from, including former Ohio representative and former White House budget director Rob Portman, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

All of them would be conventional choices. But McCain friends say he is perfectly capable of pulling a surprise of his own and picking a newcomer such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal or a woman such as Carly Fiorina, former president of Hewlett-Packard. But McCain hasn't tipped his hand on which way he is leaning.

In the meantime, McCain will increasingly target likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama with some of the same criticism used by Hillary Clinton in the primaries—that Obama is too inexperienced, that he isn't ready to be president, and that he is too liberal for Middle America.

—Kenneth T. Walsh