Running-mate selections to be made public soon

Speculation is that Obama will reveal his choice Saturday.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama gave his clearest signal yet that he has settled on a running mate when he announced Tuesday he would appear Saturday in this city where he launched his campaign.

Presumably, the running mate will appear with Obama when he shows up in front of the former state Capitol where Abraham Lincoln once served. The last time Obama appeared there, he announced he was running for president.

The Obama campaign’s announcement said only that the Illinois senator would begin his trip to the party’s national convention at the Saturday event. The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Denver.

But the candidate and his aides said nothing explicit about his decision on a running mate.

Those believed to be on Obama’s short list also were keeping mum. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, rumored as a possible choice, professed no inside knowledge of when word would come.

During an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday morning, Obama praised Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman thought to be among the contenders, for proposing an additional $1 billion of reconstruction projects in the Republic of Georgia after the Russian invasion.

Then Obama headed off for a bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia to discuss economic issues. He planned to campaign today with former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and on Thursday with the state’s current governor, Tim Kaine, who is also mentioned as a possible running mate.

The list of potential running mates is widely believed to have come down to Sebelius, Biden, Kaine and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. Obama’s major rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, was seen by some Democrats as a longshot pick.

In Warren, Mich., on Tuesday, Sebelius wouldn’t say if she expects to be chosen and said she doesn’t know the timetable for naming Obama’s choice. “A week from tomorrow we will all know,” she said in a telephone interview before stumping for Obama at a town hall meeting at Macomb Community College.

Only Obama, his wife, Michelle, a handful of his most senior advisers and his two-member search committee know for certain who has been vetted and discussed.

Staffers were already in place to support Obama’s pick, including more than a dozen seasoned operatives who have set up shop in the campaign’s Chicago headquarters.

Campaign manager David Plouffe says Obama supporters will receive first word of Obama’s decision through a mass text message but has revealed little else about what to expect.

A similar decision looms for McCain. In the hope of grabbing the post-convention spotlight from Obama, Mc- Cain is considering naming his running mate in the few days after the Democrats leave Denver and before the Republicans begin their convention in St. Paul, Minn.

McCain’s top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Other possible choices include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential pick in 2000 who now is an independent.

Underscoring how seriously McCain may be considering Ridge or Lieberman, Republican officials say top McCain advisers have been reaching out to big donors and high-profile delegates in key states to gauge the impact of putting an abortion-rights supporter on the GOP ticket.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh warned Tuesday that the GOP base “will totally turn on McCain” if he picks a pro-choice running mate and predicted such a move “will ensure his defeat.”

Obama adviser Anita Dunn stirred the pot by saying Mc- Cain “needs to figure out if he’s going to let Rush Limbaugh and the right wing of his party direct his choice.”