Hubert Humphrey

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When John McCain makes his official VEEP announcement tomorrow, it will mark the shortest time between the VP announcement and the general election.  If McCain rolls out his announcement tomorrow it as planned it will mark 67 days between the roll out date and the election.  In 1964 Lyndon Johnson made his announcement of Hubert Humphrey just 69 days before Election Day. 

If Mitt Romney is announced as John McCain's pick for vice president tomorrow (or today, even), it will be the shortest time between the VP announcement and Election Day in modern history.

The previous record for shortest time between an unveiling and Election Day was set in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson announced Hubert Humphrey on Aug. 26, a mere 69 days before voters went to the polls.

If McCain announces tomorrow morning as planned, the new record will be 67 days. 

Joseph Biden will mark the fourth vice presidential nominee from a state that borders Pennsylvania since Democratic candidate Alton Parker picked former West Virginia US Senator Henry Davis in 1904 to run with him against Theodore Roosevelt.  Davis’ neighboring status had no effect in Pennsylvania which cast their votes for the Republican team that year.  In 1968 Richard Nixon tapped Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew to join his ticket and while the Republicans won the election they lost Pennsylvania to Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie.  Pennsylvania was sure to pick a VP candidate in 1972 when Nixon and Agnew were able to turn the tides and defeat George McGovern and former French Ambassador Sarget Shriver who also resided in Maryland. 

Would history have taken a different path if Hubert Humphrey had chosen San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto as his running mate? In late August 1968, just days before the Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, Humphrey aides leaked the names of the leading candidates for the Vice Presidential nomination: Edmund Muskie, the Senator from Maine who was eventually picked ; Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma; former Ambassador to France Sargent Shriver, the father of First Lady Maria Shriver; and Alioto.

Last week I used this space to explore the possibilities of who McCain might pick as his convention keynote speaker in St. Paul. However, there is a more fundamental question for McCain at the Republican National Convention. What do you do with President Bush and Vice President Cheney?