If you missed Bill Kristol's NYT's op-ed today, it's entirely devoted to the VP race, with Kristol explaining how McCain should be deciding his VP pick. But before all that, Kristol relays some information on announcement timing:

John McCain apparently intends to announce his pick after the Democratic convention. There's been thought given to announcing McCain's selection the day after Barack Obama's Thursday night Aug. 28 acceptance speech, to try to minimize Obama's postconvention bounce.

But the current inclination is to wait until after Labor Day weekend, which ends with President Bush's speech Monday, the first night of the G.O.P. convention. Then the McCain camp would hope to seize attention Tuesday with the V.P. announcement. A strong pick, followed by the V.P. nominee's remarks Wednesday and then McCain's speech Thursday, could provide a good launch into the last 60 days of the campaign.

The problem for McCain is that there's only three days, which includes a weekend, between Obama's acceptance speech and the start of the GOP convention. He could do it on Friday Aug. 29 or, as Kristol writes, on Tuesday Sept. 2. There are positives and negatives to both days. But the latter would generate more buzz. Not a convention goes by without the inevitable moans that they are just publicity affairs void of actual news. What a way to make some actual news...