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Looks like the announcement will be forthcoming though. Flap bets it will leak late tomorrow afternoon.

Bill Kristol has a different three:

Now, will McCain REALLY wait until a week from Friday to name his Vice President? The formal announcement yes. But if McCain has made the decision he will trump Obama on Wednesday or Thursday and not let him have this weekend uncontested.

Matt Drudge is the first up with the poop:

The NYT newsroom was buzzing late Monday afternoon after Obama-beat reporter Jeff Zeleny learned how the Dem hopeful has now finalized his choice for a running-mate.

Obama has set an elaborate roll-out to announce his decision that will begin with an early morning e-mail to supporters, perhaps as early as Tuesday, Zeleny and Adam Nagourney have been told.

A top source close to Caroline Kennedy tells DRUDGE — the pick is more likely to come early Wednesday morning.

Drudge’s non-scientific poll has A Wild Card, then Joe Biden in the lead with Evan Byah in third place. Hillary is a close 4th.

Who will it be? And, when?

Flap says the leak is anytime now…….

This is what Barack Obama said in 2003:

Obama: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer [universal] health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world…cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. … A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. … [A]s all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, we have to take back the House.” (Laura Meckler, “Let’s Go To The Video,” The Wall Street Journal’s “Washington Wire” Blog, www.blogs.wsj.com, 1/22/08)

But, today as in the video above says something different:

Q: Why not a single-payer? Why not get the corporate battling and the lobbyists out of the way, and just go to a single-payer?

A: Well, I’ve said this before. If I were designing a system from scratch, then I’d probably set up a single-payer system. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the terminology: Single-payer basically means that you’ve got one government funded program. It doesn’t have to be government run. But it’s government funded. Medicare would be an example of a single-payer system, if everybody was in Medicare.

But the problem is we’re not starting from scratch. We’ve got a system in which most people have become accustomed to getting their health insurance through their employer. And for us to immediately transition from that, and given that a lot of people work for insurance companies, a lot people work for HMOs. You’ve got a whole system of institutions that have been set up. Making that transition in a rapid way I think would be very difficult. And people don’t have time to wait. They need relief now. So my attitude is let’s build up the system we got, let’s make it more efficient, we may be over time – as we make the system more efficient and everybody’s cover – decide that there are other ways for us to provide care more effectively.

Flap is now confused. Is Barack Obama for single-payer government funded/managed health care for everyone or not?

John McCain does not favor a government funded and/or managed system.

What about Barack Obama? What does “over time” mean?

Again, Obama demonstrates that his words do not matter – nor are they consistent.

Electoral College Graphic from Electoral-Vote.com

Obama 275 McCain 250 Ties 13 (270 EV’s needed to win Presidency)

Today’s Electoral College Map, one week prior to the Democrat National Convention in Denver, shows a close race with John McCain gaining in Ohio and other key battleground states.

From Real Clear Politics:

Flap did not expect a close race in this time in the Presidential cycle and undoubtedly Obama will receive a bump in the polls with the Democrat Convention starting in Denver next Monday.

Next, will come the naming of Vice Presidential choices.

With Virginia in the toss-up category, will Barack Obama turn to Tim Kaine, the Virginia Governor as Vice President?