By Dylan Matthews
Obviously, Obama hasn't announced his running mate yet, but thanks to now-leaking Denver speaking schedules we can safely cross off a number of prominent options. The VP pick will speak on Wednesday, August 27th, which means that politicians speaking on other days have been ruled out. Thus, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, and just announced keynoter Mark Warner are all no-gos (same with Nancy Pelosi and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, not that anyone thought those were potential picks).
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius definitely will speak at the convention, but the date and time haven't been announced yet. I'm not sure whether this makes her selection more or less likely. On the one hand, she will be at the convention, as the VP selection must. On the other, I doubt the famously tight-lipped Obama campaign would announce that the VP pick is speaking at the convention before the official veep announcement. In any case, if she's scheduled for Wednesday night, take that as a definite sign that she's the running mate, and if she's scheduled for another time, take that as a sign she's out of contention.
UPDATE: Sebelius, along with PA Sen. Bob Casey Jr., will be speaking on Tuesday night, but Marc Ambinder cautions that the scheduling and VP operations are totally separate, and so the commenters on this post who doubted the relevance of the speaking line-ups are correct. Ezra's Commenters 1, Dylan 0.
