Will McCain choose Bobby Jindal as running mate on Thursday? Stay tuned.

Add comment July 21st, 2008

With Barack Obama getting major press coverage on his Mid-East and Europe tour, John McCain has been left in the lurch. The New York Times wouldn’t publish his op-ed piece about Iraq (it published a piece by Obama) and McCain has been  reduced to criticizing Obama instead of presenting his own initiatives.

So, what’s McCain going to do about it?

Here’s what:  On Thursday, the day Obama gives a big speech to perhaps a million people in Berlin, McCain is likely to name his vice presidential pick. That’s a big story the media have to cover with prominent positioning — equal to the treatment of Obama.

SO, who will it be? McCain could play it safe by choosing Mitt Romney, or even Rudy Giuliani, but if he wants to be really daring, he’ll go to Baton Rouge and in a dramatic news conference, announce that he’s choosing Louisiana Gov. Piush “Bobby” Jindal, the new, corruption buster from the land that vice built.

With Jindal, we’d have the first Indian-American candidate for vice president. Jindal was born in the U.S. of Indian immigrants. He’s young, still in his 30s, and he’s Roman Catholic, always an important constituency. And he’s both a social and economic conservative.

One downside to Jindal: He’s inexperienced. Jindal was elected governor in October 2007. McCain would be 72 if were to take office in 2008, and people will have to have confidence that Jindal could step into the top job with ease.

If Jindal were to be McCain’s VP, the transformation of American presidential politics would be even more remarkable than it already is, with both an African-American and an Indian American on the respective tickets.