2008 Democratic Convention in July: Does McCain still pick Palin?

[dalej42]

In 2004, the Democratic convention nominated John Kerry right before the 2004 Athens Olympics. Kerry does his, "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty" speech and spends the next 3 weeks being swiftboated. He loses the election.

In 2008, the Democrats wait until after the Beijing Olympics to hold their convention. Obama holds his acceptance speech at a huge football stadium to rave reviews. The next morning, John McCain steals Obama's spotlight by announcing he's selected Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Was the pick of Palin a political tactic to make the Republican ticket the center of attention over a weekend which would have been dominated by Obama's speech? If the Democrats would have held their convention in late July before the Olympics would McCain have felt less need to do something mavericky?

I do think that McCain picked Palin in order to knock Obama off the news. The Sunday talk shows would have been full of coverage of Obama in front of the crowds at Invesco Field in Denver. Instead, McCain got to dominate the Labor Day weekend with, "Who is Sarah Palin?" coverage.

If the Democrats would have held their convention in late July, McCain would have sat on the sidelines for 3 weeks knowing that the news would be dominated by Michael Phelps, Chinese censorship, and young Chinese gymnasts for 3 weeks. Then, McCain could have announced a running mate and anyone he picked would have given him news coverage heading into the Republican convention.