Obama pulling away? Thoughts on Cox, etc.

There have been two recent surveys showing Obama with a national lead in the range of 12-15 points. Almost all others show Obama's lead in the range of 4-5 points. One reports a tie. My own suspicion is that Obama's lead is probably about 2 or 3 points. However that may be in reality, it seems to me that for both candidates, the selection of a VP-nominee and the nomination-acceptance speech will be the next Big Deal that the broader public chooses to pay any attention to.

In the selection of a running-mate, McCain has the huge advantage of getting to wait and see who Obama picks, and then making his own choice known afterwards. By all outward indications, he seems to most desire that choice to be either Tim Pawlenty, the Governor of Minnesota, or else Thomas Ridge, the (former) Governor of Pennsylvania. I suppose neither man would be disastrous in that role, but I strongly urge McCain to select Christopher Cox, the current Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a former Congressman from Southern California, an aide in the second-term Reagan White House, and a clerk to a federal judge. Mr. Cox is 55 years old (56 in October). He has a joint MBA/JD from Harvard (ahem!). I believe he edited the Law Review. He is married with two-- I think it's two-- children. In 1978-79, he suffered temporary (6-8 months) paralysis from the chest down following an off-road auto-accident in Hawaii. Recovery was difficult, and even to this day he cannot remain seated for extended lengths of time; his own desk is set up so that he can continue work while standing.

Cox grew up in and around St. Paul, Minnesota. His family belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, and one Easter Sunday, Cox's toddler-age younger sister was killed when their father accidentally struck her with the family car while backing up in the driveway. He went to parochial schools, then to Southern Cal for undergrad. He is fluent in Russian, and actually published a daily translation of Pravda back in the '80s.