Did McCain Pick Romney?

Mark Halperin cites two GOP operatives who say McCain will announce Mitt Romney as VP next Friday. Unless those operatives include the likes of Steve Schmidt, Mark Salter, or Rick Davis, I’m inclined to view it with a very large grain of salt. And even so, leaking something like this now would completely undermine the purpose of holding off the announcement for the extra week. Not to mention that leaking that the richest guy in politics as your VP is a bad idea on the day that you’re already getting hit for owning too many homes.

This seems more to me like an intended leak to calm down conservatives who are in an uproar after pro-choice VP candidate after pro-choice candidate (Ridge, Lieberman, etc.) being leaked.

Romney will surely be on the list, but in short, I’m not convinced.

PS: This news would also make Mike Huckabee go nuts. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty may be the one candidate who is borderline acceptable to the entire broad coalition McCain is trying to build.