Biden then reportedly snuck behind each parked news van and inconspicuously inserted a banana into the tail pipe of each, before speeding away.

Well, Eve, you know what they say... where there are bagels, there are Vice Presidential nominees.

Pickup truck - check.

Avoids Starbucks - check.

Bagels - ?

The biggest signal to me yesterday was that someone was shopping Beau Biden stories:

blogs.abcnews.com/.../son-would-vote.html

Biography introductions are the first thing in order after you pick a VP. This is a pretty good bio plank (Biden's son will probably ship to Iraq soon). Just ask Jim Webb.

Of course, maybe it's Biden's people who are shopping this angle?

Or maybe no one's shopping it and ABC just turned up the info.

Tep- good piont, but the big picture is:

feeds reporters.

Given the ending of the media honeymoon with the Obama campaign, feeding them is probably as good a way as any for a veep to start.

Perhaps most of the reporters were chosen??

You idiots!! It's OBVIOUSLY an attempt to court the Jewish politics-addicts' vote!!

Maybe he should feed Zogby's Likely Voters while he's at it.

I think we're missing the forest for the trees here.  The real question is did he provide any shmear?  If not it was a cruel, sick joke on those poor reporters stuck trying to choke down dry bagels.

Clev,

Bagels and no lox is a strategy full of holes.  

Bagels means he doesn't like Krispy Kreme, the pride of my home town and a shining symbol of everything wonderful that is American.  Biden is obviously an effete arugula-eating snob who is brazenly un-'murkin.

Bagels mean that he is running to be Vice Prime Minister of Israel.

typical:

If he provided shmear, then that's a bad sign. Obama is above shmear politics.

Bagels mean that he is pandering on the off chance that McCain picks Lieberman.

As Freud says, sometimes a bagel is just a bagel...

I see metonymy.  For all its hot, doughy goodness, the Obama-Biden ticket has a hole in the middle.

"If he provided shmear, then that's a bad sign. Obama is above shmear politics."

virginiacentrist should never be alllowed to post here or anywhere else ever again.

"As Freud says, sometimes a bagel is just a bagel..."

I don't know.  It depends, on what kind of bagels?  Poppy seed (evidently into drugs); sesame ("open sesame", looking to loot innocent taxpayers); "classic" (safe but mushy); cranberry sour-cream (tnmats captured it well); or whole wheat (going for the Geriatric McCain vote)?

It would be prune Danish for the geriatric McCain vote.

I have a question for anyone out there.  Last night, at 5:30 pm MST, there was an announcement at the end of the Phoenix NBC affiliate's news program that McCain had come to a decision on his VP, but that the pick would not be announced til the 29th.  There was nothing else, no follow up (no late news because of Olympics).  Did anyone else here this from another source?  Maybe I'm hearing voices.  Probably was just an error.  The veep noise is so loud I wonder if we'll all just yawn when the stories actually break.   Perhaps both campaigns played their hands a bit much on this issue.

Cal,

It's posted on Politico too.  Seems like an obvious date for them to unveil their choice.  Obama and Biden/Kaine/Bayhwhoever could defuse the anticipation by mentioning in their speech something along the lines of "It doesn't matter what a Pawlenty thinks is wrong with the culture, his inconsistencies in his economic voting record are what effect the average American; it doesn't matter how well Romney could run an office supply enterprise, because he refuses to believe that workers who people those offices should have any relief from a devastating economic crisis" and so on and so on.

1. "Maybe I'm hearing voices. "

I'd take door number one.

cal80,

On the radio this a.m. a commentator mentioned that McCain had chosen a date on which to name his VP pick in an attempt to deflate any post-convention bounce Obama might get. Given that the Dems' convention is the 25th through the 28th, it sounds to me like you heard correctly.

I think I did not state my question clearly.  Did anyone hear that his choice was already made yesterday? I know the date part has been well documented, but yesterday it appeared McCain was throwing up trial balloons on Lieberman and Ridge, and that he remained undecided.  This report said he had definitely picked someone already, which would indicate the Lieberman/Ridge talk yesterday was all smoke and mirrors and the religious right can catch its collective breath again.

Lighten up, yard. You're jealous you didn't think of it first.

Does it matter?  If he picks someone and then later decides to go with someone else, he can, right?  I guess that would be too "pro choice" of him.

true, rozenson

[mutters]

I just saw on Drudge that it's Bayh.  Oh well.  Guess Biden can't buy him any swing states.

Molly,

I didn't see that, but I did see a headline about Obama's long-lost brother who was found living in a hut.

I would be surprised if it is Biden.  He just doesn't fit into the smooth running, controlled campaign that Obama has going.  He's a loose cannon, just like Hillary, and Obama would lose too much sleep keeping an eye on either one.  I mean the guy buys bagels for reporters, how crazy is that?    Plus, would Biden really submit to having his whole campaign staff picked out for him?  Too bad if Drudge is right.  Biden would have helped the ticket a lot with his fp credibility.

molly - ?  I see Drudgery about "PAPER: Obama brother found living in a hut!", "Michael Moore calls for Caroline Kennedy!" and "Homeless Get Cleaned Up With Free Haircuts..."

but nothing about Bayh. Different Drudge site?

I hope that's not Jabba the Hutt. If so, the McCain people will have a field day with it.

I hope it's Wes Clark, because if it is, that means I"ll net the now-forgotten junk TNR was offering to the winner of their VP stakes (remaindered books by former staffers, or whatever).

I like winning.

tep:  It's under the headline Kaine and Obama meet tonight.  Apparently, a bunch of Obama folk are being dispatched to Indiana.  

If only Biden came from a swing state.

Irony --  I will reap so many beers if it's Clark.

I'm just wondering what the context was behind "Michael Moore calls for Caroline Kennedy!"

To do what? With _him_? Was he pounding on his table as he did so?

But Biden *didn't* say he was "not the guy" today, right?  Hmm...classic.

J.J.  -- high fivin' ya!