VPrediction II

Despite missing my earlier prediction about who Barack Obama would select as his VP, I shall nonetheless charge forward boldly and tell you who John McCain will choose.

Hey, there’s room in cyberspace for this sort of thing.

McCain should grab a woman (not literally, of course) to give his campaign some pizazz and pick up disgruntled Hillaryites. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina would be excellent choices.

Some pundits have suggested our own Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, but A) she wants to be governor instead, and B) she is a Texan. That last point would make it hard for McCain to claim that his term would not be Bush III.

Sen. Joe Liebermann of Connecticut would be nifty, mostly because it would be ironic in the extreme for him to go from the Demo VP nominee in ’00 to the GOP’s in ’08.

That leave’s two frontrunners -- current Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

My prediction is that McCain will … pick Mitt.

He is a Mormon, and that makes Christian righties uneasy. But if he could deliver the state his dad governed years ago — Michigan — that could win the thing in November.

We shall see. But it looks like both candidates will make safe, conventional choices instead of swinging for the fences. Pity.