John Sidney McCain to announce V.P. August 29

By GottaLaff

Someone's trying to steal someone's thunder, isn't someone?

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 this Friday, and the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts the Democratic nomination at a 70,000-person spectacular in a Denver stadium.

Way to celebrate being old in the spotlight, J Sid.

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. [...]

But McCain friends emphasized that he talks about the decision with almost no one, and could even change the announcement plans and go sooner.

“McCain views this as the one decision that he has total, utter, non-negotiable control over,” one campaign official said.

...Which is code for, when he comes down from his Ambien high and can think what passes for more clearly.

The announcement strategy – provided McCain doesn’t change it – calls for naming the pick early Friday morning to try to suppress Obama’s bounce coming out of his convention.

He even flip-flops on when he'd announce.

“You’re going to own the weekend,” a McCain official said.

Well, he owns just about everything else, why should a weekend be the exception?

McCain advisers say they don’t think it would make sense to name the pick earlier because the impact would get diluted by Obama’s selection. And since the GOP convention is second, they have the advantage of knowing the opposition ticket before showing their own cards.

I am weary of the game-playing. I better snap out of it, because it's not going to end any time soon.