There are doubtless many better predictors of who McCain might pick as VP than who comes up more frequently on a Google News search with McCain [potential VP surname], and of course how prevalent the person is in the news even separate from VP rumors will affect the total. But these numbers are interesting nonetheless:
The short-list:
Romney (good guy): 6,081
Crist (good guy): 2,781
Jindal (very bad guy): 2,494
(Interestingly, fewer hits than McCain Lieberman! Perhaps Americans aren't as swayed by a McCain-Jindal ticket as extremists would have us believe?)
Honorable mentions - good guys:
Rice: 1,809
Pawlenty: 813
Ridge: 533
(Non-quantitatively, I've sensed a recent uptick in Ridge mentions relative to the others)
Fiorina: 433
Richard Burr: 385
Rob Portman: 141
Honorable mentions - bad guys:
Lieberman: 2,600
John Thune: 354
K. B. Hutchinson: 289
Mel Martinez: 287
Mark Sanford: 178
Haley Barbour: 75
Sarah Palin: 50
So, if I'm John McCain, here's my problem: I have to win the center and a few key states (like Florida) if I want to beat Obama, but I can't risk alienating the religion-as-government wackos too much (who don't seem to understand that not voting for McCain is the same as voting for Obama - great thinking guys!)
So, if I were McCain, I would start leaking rumors that I'm going to pick someone who's not even pro-life (like, say, Tom Ridge). The anti-education, anti-medicine special interests start foaming at the mouth.
Then when I pick Charlie Crist, he doesn't seem so bad.
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