Scott Bremner

John McCain is wrestling this week with the idea of naming a vice-presidential candidate.

That’s even though it’s only July and it’s even though the convention isn’t for another six weeks.

Why?

Because John McCain has to fight more than his perceived association with a low-rated lame duck president; he has to fight the mountain of charisma, the “C” factor carried by his opponent.

Barack Obama is traveling around the globe this week, hoping to convince the world’s people along with the voters back home that he has the right stuff to be commander-in-chief of the world’s deadliest superpower.

By the standards of what presidential races usually look like in July, it’s rather juicy stuff and the cameras have followed every footstep through Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.

Why name a running mate in July?

Probably the thinking is, we have to do something, anything to wrest those free TV minutes away from the trip and back to the Republican Party candidate, who had the mixed blessing of a quiet and relatively uncovered primary season.

Oh, I can hear it now. The liberal press is in cahoots to put Obama in office and that’s why all those cameras are running around the planet.

The truth is that the better story gets the spotlight and seeing Obama off with soldiers half a world away beats John McCain on a golf cart with Bush Sr. any day.

I take no sides as to which candidate would make the better president. But Obama has a strong edge in the “C” factor, the same factor he used to his advantage in the spring race against Hillary Clinton.

He clearly created excitement with his message of change.

We must remember to ask, “A change to what?”

This isn’t new.

Richard Nixon ran into a buzz saw the first time he went toe-to-toe on national television with a charismatic young senator named John Kennedy.

Kennedy was simply younger, more energetic and better looking. That debate ushered in the TV age for politics in America.

Area Congressman Phil English relies more on the strength of his knowledge than his personal charisma.

He is now running against a 49-year old businesswoman named Kathy Dahlkemper.

Will that race too have strains of style over substance?

I’m in the TV business so I know a lot of people with charisma. I wouldn’t vote for a single one of them to run this country.

Charisma does not mean leadership, but to be a leader you first have to get people to follow you and to believe you and that’s where the “C” factor pays off.

We’ll have to wait and see if it continues to pay off in November.