A strange story out of Panama City, Florida this week. Via the Tallahassee Democrat (which is the name of the newspaper in Florida's capital):

Tallahassee Democrat senior writer Stephen Price on Friday was singled out and asked to leave a media area at the Panama City rally of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

Price was among at least three other reporters, and the only black reporter, surrounding McCain's campaign bus--Gov. Charlie Crist and his fiancee, Carole Rome, were already aboard--when a member of the Arizona senator's security detail asked the reporter to identify himself. Price had shown his media credentials to enter the area.

Without explanation, Price was asked to leave. And when another reporter asked the Secret Service detail why Price was being kicked out, she, too, was removed from the area.

Jonathan Block, a member of McCain's advance team later said the following of the incident:

"At the end of the day, your reporter was in the wrong place. I do not know why the other reporters were not moved. The rest of the local press should have been moved as well."

More details when they come in...

Greetings from Florida, where our governor, Charlie Crist, has just announced his plans to wed his girlfriend of nine months. Crist, who is 51 years old, has been single for the past 30 years. His first marriage ended after less than a year, giving way to a three-decade-long stint as a bachelor. His fiancé, Carole Rome, 38, is the president of (no kidding) a Halloween costume business.

Why does any of this deserve your consideration? Well, timing, for one thing. It's no secret that Crist is on McCain's short-list for Vice President, and, oddly, marital status seems to be something of a sticking point in the race to be number 2. In fact, America has not had an unmarried Vice President since 1852, when Franklin Pierce gave the nod to William King.

No date has yet been set for the wedding, and while the sound of church bells setting the mood for the Republican Convention in St. Paul may simply be a coincidence, some wonder if this marriage itself is not, in some ways, its own kind of costume.

Today's winner of the CTotD is Steve Rosenbaum from the Yahoo Opinion pages. And he almost had me.

The reasons are simple. He can't win. Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee -- the polls all show that McCain's pro-war stance and Bush endorsement make him a lost cause in November. That combined with soft stand on litmus test conservative issues make him an unpopular candidate among the base. I know some Democrats that think the Republicans are planning to let McCain lose and 'sit this one out' so that they can hang the democrats with a bad economy and a war that is a morass. But that just isn't how they play. They play to win every hand -- think about 2000 with a popular Democratic president and good economy and a solid VP running for president. Why did they put up Bush? And why did they fight so hard? Because, you don't ever throw a game. And they're not going to throw this one.

McCain won't be the nominee.

By August, they'll have done something to try and pick away at Obama's popularity. They'll emphasis race, or whatever they can to get him to appear less than perfect. Then, they'll bring out of the woodwork a surprise candidate who can shift the story fast. With just two months before the election -- the new candidate will have little time to be 'vetted' but will be shiny and new, and will get a lot of media attention as Obama's newness will have become -- by then -- tarnished or at least no longer the surprise that it has been as he unseated Hillary.

The first paragraph is good, and is a great example of what makes a good crackpot theory, and that is those pieces of credibility that make it somewhat plausible. Because I actually believe it's true that we nominated the one GOP contender that would make Obama's path to victory easy. As for the crackpot theory, alas, if this logic held together Bob Dole would have dropped out by convention time in 1996. And he didn't. The establishment has picked their candidate and that is that.

The giveaway? The list of names:

Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State)
Colin Powell (fmr Sec. of State)
Marilyn Musgrave (Colorado Congresswoman)
Mitt Romney (fmr Massachusetts Governor)
Mike Huckabee (fmr Governor of Arkansas)
Charlie Crist (Florida Governor)
Tim Pawlenty (Minnesota Governor)
Bobby Jindal (Louisiana Governor)
Mark Sanford: (Governor of South Carolina)
John Thune (Senator from South Dakota)
Dick Lugar (Senator from Indiana)
Chuck Hagel (Senator from Nebraska)
MIchael Bloomberg (NYC Mayor)

Rice and Powell are big in the administration and are curiosities but not excitable by the base. Neither will run if asked. Musgrave who? I personally could deal with Pawlenty, Sanford, Romney, Huckabee, or Thune. Jindal is too fresh and Crist is way too tan, makes Boehner look pale. Lugar who? Hagel and Bloomberg? You must be kidding, you think McCain has problems with the base, wait til you nominate those two.

Gov. Charlie Crist (Fla.)

Governor Charlie Crist of Florida has been getting some attention as a potential running mate for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. As the popular governor of what will be a key battleground state in the general election, it is only natural that his name would make a list of potential Vice Presidential picks. But Crist vaulted his name onto the short list with his late, but well timed endorsement of McCain two days before the Florida primary. McCain's victory there over former Govs. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee propelled him into the Super Tuesday primaries as the clear front runner for the Republican nomination. Furthermore, the victory by McCain knocked former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani out of the race. Giuliani endorsed McCain the following day and it has been no looking back for the Arizona Senator.

Crist, 51, has served as a state Senator, Attorney General, and now Governor of Florida. He carries very high approval ratings, over 70 percent in some polls, and considers education, crime, elder affairs, the environment, and ethics as issues he has championed. The latter two he shares with McCain, who has sponsored anti-global warming legislation in the United States Senate and has been a strong voice against waste of resources and abuse of power in Washington.

Crist's selection as a running mate seems unlikely. Crist is viewed as more of a moderate Republican, and has no signature issue that identifies him to conservatives and party activists, a constituency McCain will seek to mollify with his VP selection. McCain figures to win Florida in November, with or without Crist on the ticket, and especially with the controversy over the Democratic Party primary in the state possibly depressing Democrat turnout.

Gov. Mark Sanford (S.C.)

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina has been on conservatives' short list of potential running mates for McCain, even if he has not been on McCain's list. Sanford is a former Member of Congress in the House and is considered a stalwart conservative. Sanford is a budget hawk, an area of agreement with McCain. He is a tax cutter, earning high marks from the National Taxpayers' Union and a number one ranking from the fiscal watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste during his time in Congress. As Governor, Sanford has cut taxes while focusing on government reform, economic growth and job creation, and quality of life issues in South Carolina.

Sanford, 47, is often mentioned in conservative circles as a future presidential candidate. He would be seen a shoring up a perceived McCain weakness on the economy and economic theory. He also would bring critical executive experience to the ticket. Sanford was reelected to his second term in 2006 with 55% of the vote, in a bad year nationally for Republicans.

Sanford did not endorse any candidate before the crucial South Carolina primary, although he was heavily lobbied by all the campaigns. His endorsement almost certainly would have swung the state to whomever he favored. McCain won the primary in a close contest over Mike Huckabee, which set him up for his momentum establishing victory in Florida. McCain is expected to win South Carolina in the general election, so a Sanford selection would be most useful in other conservative Southern states.

One seldom gets a second chance to make a first impression. But in the name of democracy, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm are seeking a do-over of their state's primary election.

In a joint statement, they said: "The right to vote is at the very foundation of our democracy. This primary season, voters have turned out in record numbers to exercise that right, and it is reprehensible that anyone would seek to silence the voices of 5,163,271 Americans."

While the states knew the rules going into the game, they still think "it is intolerable that the national political parties have denied the citizens of Michigan and Florida their votes and voices at their respective national conventions."

An agreement may be in the works. The Associated Press reports: The Michigan governor, along with top officials in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign and Florida's state party chair, are now saying they would consider holding a sort of do-over contest by June. That's a change from their previous insistence that the primaries their states held in January should determine how their delegates are allocated.

It is an open question whether Barack Obama will go along given the demographics of Michigan and Florida are similar to Ohio and Texas, which he lost to Clinton.

Now here's an interesting development:

Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he'd support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state's delegates can be counted at the party's national convention.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he's open to the possibility.

So my home state may actually attain the relevance it sought in the primary process, after all. Good! And good for Crist, who turns out to be a pretty decent Governor when compared with his predecessor. A re-vote is really the only fair way to go. I know many Dems in Florida who stayed home on election day (and shame on them for not voting against the property tax initiative) because they were told the vote wouldn't count for anything.

While many Florida Democrats are rightly steamed that their voices have been muted in this election, the only fair thing to do is create a level playing filed, let each candidate campaign in the Sunshine State, and then re-vote.

Now that the laurel of the Republican nomination has settled rather firmly upon John McCain, the next dramatic event in the GOP universe (discounting Huckabee's imminent withdrawal and several pending McCain endorsements) will be McCain's selection of a running mate.

Naturally, the first instinct is to contemplate the losers of the GOP race. The thinking is that, by adding a former opponent to your ticket, you might thereby cull his voters to your ticket. Of course, it didn't work so well for John Kerry in 2004, or Al Gore in 2000....

Realistically, McCain must decide upon the effect he hopes to produce in the selection of his V-P. Should the selectee be chosen in a demographic calculation, in an attempt to secure a swing state by choosing one of their own for the ticket? Or, should the running mate compensate for a delinquency in McCain's credentials (i.e., bolstering his conservative merits)? Finally, will the V-P be expected to continue the "active" vice-presidency executed by Dick Cheney, or will we see a return to the behind-the-scenes, butler-style figure of Al Gore during the Clinton years.

This post takes an extended look at the current prospects whom McCain is likely pondering today.