Veepstakes, Republican Edition

As the nation prepares for Barack Obama's nomination to be the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, as news writers search in vain for a good synonym for "historic," all eyes have been deflected, briefly, in McCain's direction as he gets ready to announce his vice-presidential pick tomorrow:

The Arizona senator will appear with his No. 2 at an Ohio rally on Friday, aides said, though they provided no details on who McCain had picked.

Without explanation, Pawlenty called off an Associated Press interview at the last minute, as well as other media interviews in Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention.

Others believed to be in contention for the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket included former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was meeting with donors throughout California, and Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who was vacationing on New York's Long Island.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, too, was still a possibility, as was the idea that McCain would choose a dark horse from any number of names that have circulated.

McCain, however, was uncharacteristically silent.

Why is this so unexciting?

I think it's because no matter who McCain picks, it's unlikely to be someone around whom strong social conservatives will rally. I could be wrong, and would very much like to be wrong, but realistically I know that few of the names, even the long-shot-dark-horse ones circulated, are all that exciting to a pro-life Catholic voter.

I know people have said good things about Gov. Pawlenty, for instance, but as a "raised Catholic but converted to Evangelical Christianity" candidate he's not exactly inspiring to the "Catholics Against Joe Biden" conglomerate. It's not that I don't have sympathy for ex-Catholics, and I find them to be more honest than current Catholics like Pelosi and Biden who don't seem to believe much of what the Church actually teaches but claim membership anyway. But he wouldn't be my favorite pick.

The trouble is that unless McCain were to select Ron Paul as his running mate, I find the whole bunch pretty uninspiring. And if McCain picks a pro-choice candidate I'll stop flirting with the idea that the Republicans could win, and return to focusing on why the Democrats should lose, because if McCain picks a pro-choice veep we all lose, anyway.