In Pa., Looking Out for No. 2

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, left, and Tom Ridge are considered possible running mates for John McCain. (By Bradley C. Bower -- Bloomberg News)

Yet public appearances such as those this week keep the speculation alive. Ridge and his family had a perch dinner with McCain on Sunday night, and the twice-elected governor accompanied the senator throughout the commonwealth over the next two days.

He gave a taste of what he'd bring to the ticket Tuesday with an appeal to Pennsylvania's independent voters, who he said will decide the race.

"Ladies and gentlemen, when you pick up the newspapers and look at the maps, there are red states and blue states. But we need a president who is red, white and blue," Ridge said. "And independents in Pennsylvania [are] going to support that red-white-and-blue candidate for president."

But when McCain was asked the day before about his first 90 days in office, he -- intentionally or not -- threw a little water on the burning speculation. He said he would "call Tom Ridge to Washington from whatever vacation he is taking, get him down there and get him to work." That did not sound as if Ridge would be busy moving into the vice presidential mansion at the Naval Observatory.

Ridge told the Inquirer he had not discussed the job with McCain. "If you cast a universal net, my name might be on the list," Ridge said. "But as the list narrows, I don't have a clue who's on and who's off.''

Lieberman is another McCain favorite, a frequent sidekick who has infuriated Democrats with his full-throated support of the Arizona Republican. At Tuesday's town hall, the sometime Democrat, sometime independent from Connecticut showed he had learned something from his experience running for vice president with Al Gore. He was far tougher on Obama than either Ridge or McCain.

The choice, Lieberman told a cheering, partisan crowd in this GOP stronghold, is "between one candidate, John McCain, who's had experience and been tested in war and tried in peace, and another candidate who has not. Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not.

"Between one candidate who's a talker and the other candidate who's the leader American needs as our next president."

Lieberman had the crowd so worked up, he had to calm them down.

"I'm just the warm-up act," he said with a grin.

Staff writer Michael D. Shear contributed to this report.