The Note: Veep's Week

August 18, 2008 -- All he needs is experience . . . that reinforces his message of change . . . while bringing geographic/ethnic/ideological diversity . . . and fluidity at world affairs . . . without upsetting Hillary Clinton supporters . . . or the liberal left . . . in the package of someone who's ready to be president . . . who won't make it harder to hope and dream . . . or overshadow the man at the top of the ticket . . . or say something dumb . . . or be too boring to be relevant.

(Still wondering why it's taken him so long to choose?)

It's decision time for a back-from-vacation Sen. Barack Obama -- and yes, our cell phones are charged and ready to receive any important communications.

(DQMOT -- but the smart money puts the pick in the latter part of the week -- when Obama's schedule is wide open.)

(And have recent events changed the criteria? How many contenders are in Georgia by invitation right now?)

One thing the Obama campaign has done right: We are now so conditioned to think it won't be Hillary Clinton that the why-isn't-it-her storyline won't have a long shelf life. (And if it is Hillary -- oh boy.)

One thing the campaign hasn't proven it's done right: We are now so close to the start of the convention that a the pick takes on more importance and is guaranteed more quick, harsh scrutiny -- which will mean a welcome-to-the-big-leagues couple of news cycles for Obama's No. 2.

It's an uneasy time for Democrats -- winning in the polls, but not by enough; behind the standard-bearer, but still dealing with Clinton drama; excited about the ticket, but not sure yet what that ticket will look like.

"Think of the choice Sen. Obama has to make about his running mate as if it's a horserace of contenders running through his head his heart and his gut," ABC's Jake Tapper reported on "Good Morning America" Monday -- with Tim Kaine surging early and Joe Biden coming on strong.

And don't forget a dark horse: "There's talk of Hillary Clinton and former senator Sam Nunn," Tapper reports.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos tags Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who's in Georgia on Monday at the request of the Georgian leader, as the favorite: "I think he probably is [the favorite] right now -- which means he's not going to get it." And regarding Clinton: "If you gave me 50-1, I'd take it."

On timing: "A person familiar with the campaign's planning noted that Obama's schedule at the end of this week is open, but said the announcement could come 'as late as the weekend,' " Ben Smith and Glenn Thrush write for Politico. "As a candidate whose currency has been his personal story, in choosing his running mate, Obama will also be choosing a narrative."

Given the stakes -- what's one more turn on the Sunday shows between friends? "Appearing on TV talk shows, the could-be running mates from both parties strived for a delicate balancing act -- at once demonstrating their loyalty, appearing vice presidential and avoiding over-eagerness," Amy Chozick writes in The Wall Street Journal.

The schedule drives the early-week speculation: "On Monday, Sen. Obama plans to hold a town-hall style event in Gov. [Bill] Richardson's home state [of New Mexico]. On Wednesday he will campaign in Virginia, the home of Gov. Tim Kaine, another shortlister."

Virginia gets a second day of Obama time, too, on Thursday: "Kaine spent 20 minutes huddled in a backroom, where he said he was 'filming a little thing' for the Obama campaign," Tim Craig reports for The Washington Post. "The cameraman later followed Kaine to Henrico County, where he held a town-hall meeting for Obama. But campaign officials stress the 'filming' of Kaine has nothing to do with Obama's choice of a running mate.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., showed he can make the soundbites sting (who's bland now?): "We are not all Georgians now," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation," per ABC's Matthew Jaffe and Julia Bain. "If we were Georgians and the Russians were invading our country and killing our people, we'd be in a state of war. And clearly, that's not what we want. And John sometimes, he's a good person, but he's a little bit given to this kind of bellicose rhetoric, which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than to diffuse them, and that's not what you want in a president."

Biden is auditioning from afar. "Mr. Biden's visit to Georgia (he was expected to return to Washington on Monday) highlighted his standing as an expert on foreign policy -- he is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- who is known and respected in capitals around the world," John M. Broder writes in The New York Times. "But it also emphasized his status as a Washington insider at a time when Americans say they are hungering for change."

Only Nunn, D-Ga., was named by Obama as a "wise" adviser Saturday at Saddleback.

David Broder gets a hint of how few hints are being dropped: "Patti Solis Doyle, the ousted Clinton campaign manager who will run the race of Obama's No. 2, told me that -- because she is flying blind -- she had started an office pool. Her entry: Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. Two days later, Kaine's predecessor, Mark Warner, was announced as keynoter, apparently a signal that Kaine will not be No. 2."

Whoever it is, he (or she) will have to help with this, too: "Democrats face a number of imperatives at their convention, none trickier than making more voters comfortable with the prospect of putting a candidate with a most unusual background -- the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia -- and his family in the White House," Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg write in The New York Times. "No one, his advisers believe, makes the case better for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois than his wife, who will expand her profile by delivering one of the marquee speeches carried by television networks."

(And look for the Obama campaign Tuesday to announce a Thursday night convention speech by Al Gore, per ABC's Jennifer Duck.)

No free shots in this game -- and here's your public financing in action: "Sen. John McCain has so much spare cash on hand -- he collected a record $27 million in July -- that the Republican candidate plans to run campaign ads during the networks' coverage of the Democratic National Convention later this month," Joseph Curl writes in the Washington Times.

And this, as The New York Times' Patrick Healy takes the (quickened) Democratic pulse: "Party leaders -- while enthusiastic about Mr. Obama and his state-by-state campaign operations -- say he must do more to convince the many undecided Democrats and independents that he would address their financial anxieties rather than run, by and large, as an agent of change -- given that change, they note, is not an issue."

What else can a No. 2 do for him? "Now, Obama plunges back into the campaign at a pivotal moment, with the Democratic convention a week away and the announcement of his vice presidential nominee expected any day," Thomas Fitzgerald reports in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer. "The selection process has been free of serious leaks, just the way 'No Drama' Obama likes it, but Democratic strategists hope that whomever he picks will help him get his mojo back."

It's early -- but Obama does seem more aggressive since he got back from vacation. "Sunday, after praising the Arizona senator as a 'genuine American patriot,' the Democratic presidential hopeful got back to business -- methodically tearing into McCain's health care, tax and energy policies and criticizing his advisers," the AP's Beth Fouhy reports.

"Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail Sunday after a week off in Hawaii and argued that he is the presidential candidate who can fix the nation's economic woes, repeatedly slamming John McCain as a continuation of the Bush administration," Seema Mehta writes in the Los Angeles Times.