Wannabe casting call

The 2004 Republican National Convention is not only nominating George W. Bush for “four more years.” It’s also the casting call for prospective GOP presidential candidates in 2008.

None of the wannabes are talking 2008. That’s considered impolitic. Their preening is made possible, of course, because Vice President Dick Cheney says he won’t run to succeed Bush.

Last night’s convention speakers – led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani – are very much in the mix. Add to that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

There are others names, of course. But most Americans have yet to hear of them.

“Every convention puts forward what it considers to be its best foot,'' says presidential scholar Stephen Hess of the nonpartisan Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. ``Party people who are celebrities, household names, logically are the people who would be in the on-deck circle for the next available slot.''