August is Hot And Boring - Except When It Ain't

I'm just looking at the calendar - this is the time when we Atom Bomb Babies, born between July 16th (Trinity) and August 15th (the surrender of Japan), or Leos (July 23-Aug22), look forward to with equal amounts of hope and dread.

We relish getting presents - but growing another year older sucks. It's fucking hot. Since it's so fucking hot, sudden storms and tornadoes are fairly common in the plains states; the hurricane season is getting good and wound up down South as well. State and county fairs usually get held - if you've ever been to one you know why its fun and a pain in the ass too.

This year, we have the Olympics, August 8th-24th, and then the Democratic National Convention starts the day after the closing ceremonies, Monday, August 25th.

It's been in the press lately that if Johnny Dubya Mac wants a positive press cycle before the Olympics, he needs to get off his ass and name his VP choice. However, this also applies to Obama - if The Big O wants to name a running mate before the oxygen leaves the room and his own convention, he needs to do it now as well.

So the next week will probably have endless idle watercooler chatter, and hopefully one announcement that moves the chatter to outright character assassination.

Obama could simply sit on the nominee as a surprise to the convention. His position and charisma could make him likely to nominate at the last-moment a curve-ball choice and then pull the convention into agreement behind him without much question. There's still some risk of a brokered convention though - a surprise name that may freshly re-divide the delegates would be discouraged, like a woman other than Hillary Clinton. Theoretically, McCain could wait and do the same, as the GOP convention starts a week later on September 1st, and trump the denouement of the Democrats. Both candidates have have political realities that make it unlikely, though.

Since I still think the rumor earlier this week about Ann Veneman was to test the reaction to another woman as the Vice-presidential running mate, it becomes more imperative for Obama to make a public choice this week. I think he's likely to choose a female Democratic bureaucrat that hasn't run for elected office before or in a very long while. If Obama is doing this and he's trying avoid a mass uprising from the Hillary delegates, he has to announce this week or early next.

FWIW - John McCain was born August 29th & Barack Obama was born August 4th. The Big Dog is August 19th. And little ol' me is August 8th, and my daughter will turn 4 August 23rd.