Summer Tea Leaf Reading

When it comes to politics, nothing is more fun or unproductive than reading the veepstakes tea leaves, as we have discussed on these pages before.

A cursory reading of the Democrat tea leaves made Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) the hands-down pick for Team Obama. He offsets the foreign policy deficiencies of Obama, and it was obvious they were hard-floating Biden’s name leading up to his selection. It was a clean pick.

This week the tea leaf reading leaves an obvious VP pick as well. Recently, and quietly, the McCain camp has hired the press team that will shepherd around the new VP pick. Ben Porritt, formerly with the campaign of Mitt Romney as the sidekick of Romney spokesmodel Kevin Madden (you know I love you, Mad Dog), has joined in recent days.

Quietly, they added Maria Comella, who was the communications director for former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. She’ll be manning the McCain VP’s press plane. However, the talented Maria is also a former close associate of Madden. Add to this that Romney has been diligently working to take on Obama this week and the obvious conclusion is an easy entrance for Romney as the McCain veep.

Obvious, that is, unless you read the tea leaves The Hill’s Jackie Kucinich has been drinking, err reading. She has been closely examining the Republican convention speaker’s roster and has found an absence of short-lister (and a great VP choice) Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.). A sure bet that Cantor could be slotted for the VP role.

Not one to bet against her, I’ll just note that nothing is more fun or unproductive …