What Not To Read Into: Pronoun Edition

Ambinder says that Obama three times in two sentences referred to his VP as a he, instead of qualifying it with a “he or she” like Obama normally does. He and others take this to mean that Obama has ruled out Sebelius or Clinton. Notwithstanding that he ruled them out for other reasons (especially Clinton), I would tend to think that this was just sloppy language. Obama isn’t going to telegraph his choice beforehand. And every report seems to indicate that he hasn’t notified anyone of being chosen.

Every indication seems that these were words off the top of Obama’s head. Not any intricately prepared signal. I stand by my previous advice: the goal isn’t to predict who he is going to choose; we’ll know soon enough who it is, no reason to rush into it and jump to conclusions.

UPDATE: Robert Gibbs agrees with me. Chill out, all.