Barack Obama's newly minted running mate will join the Democratic hopeful onstage Saturday at a rally in this capital city where Obama launched his White House bid, a campaign official said.
A senior Obama adviser told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday that Obama and his vice presidential choice will appear 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 disclosure narrowed the window Obama has to reveal his running mate. The list of possibilities is widely believed to be down to Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who planned to campaign with Obama Thursday in his home state.
Obama's major rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, was seen by some Democrats as a long-shot.
As he drew closer to naming a running mate in the final days before the Democratic convention, Obama issued a blunt counterattack against what he contends is Republican John McCain's habit of questioning his "character and patriotism."
Vice presidential picks have seldom been as important as this year. Obama was thought to be looking for a running mate who adds heft to the Democratic ticket, given the Illinois senator's brief tenure on the national political scene.
The choice is equally vital for McCain, who turns 72 on Aug. 29 and would be the oldest first-term American president.
The Arizona senator was considering a vice presidential announcement right after next week's Democratic convention ends on Aug. 28, gunning to diminish Obama's post-convention glow as party delegates leave Denver, Colorado. McCain has a three-day window before his Republicans assemble Sept. 1 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
With Obama expected to name his No. 2 as early as Wednesday, he and his campaign were refusing any clues. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, however, Obama praised Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman for proposing an additional $1 billion of reconstruction projects in the Republic of Georgia after the Russian invasion.
At the VFW meeting, an unsmiling, steely eyed Obama struck back at McCain, who told the same audience a day earlier that his Democratic opponent had "tried to legislate failure" in the Iraq war and was putting his presidential ambitions above American interests.
"One of the things that we have to change in this country is the idea that people can't disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism," Obama told the assembled veterans. "I have never suggested that Sen. McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. Now, it's time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same.
"Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America, so do you, and so does John McCain."
McCain's revival of the candidates' conflict over the Iraq war appeared designed to shift the debate away from the struggling American economy, which polls show is the top concern of voters. McCain is viewed as less likely to shepherd the country out of its financial crisis.
The Vietnam veteran's top contenders for the vice presidency are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional 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 Republican ticket.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh warned Tuesday that the Republican base "will totally turn on McCain" if he picks a pro-choice running mate and predicted such a move "will ensure his defeat."
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded to Limbaugh's latest volley by saying, "John McCain is pro-life, always has been, and his administration will be pro-life. Anyone picked as his vice president will respect those views."
Lieberman has been traveling with McCain recently. Pawlenty was gearing up for a weekend campaign swing in Ohio and Pennsylvania on McCain's behalf, and said he might travel to Denver next week as a McCain surrogate during the Democratic National Convention.
McCain, meanwhile, visited an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico and called for increased offshore drilling that he claims would lower the cost of food and heating homes.
McCain traveled 130 miles (209 kilometers) by helicopter to tour the massive facility, which produces 10,000 barrels of oil each day, and criticized Obama for not supporting such a plan.
"He says it won't solve our problem and that it's, quote, not real. He's wrong and the American people know it," McCain told reporters.
Obama's campaign, meanwhile, called the four-hour excursion nothing more than a stunt.
Obama strategist Anita Dunn wouldn't respond directly when asked if the Springfield event would be Obama's first appearance with his choice, but she suggested the two wouldn't necessarily be related. The campaign has said it will announce the choice in a cell phone text message to supporters.
"We could pick up the V.P. any time," Dunn said in an interview.
The campaign's announcement said only that the Illinois senator would begin his trip to the party's national convention at Saturday's event. The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Denver.
At a town-hall meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina., Obama repeatedly said "he" when discussing the qualities he sought in a potential running mate, even as campaign officials cautioned not to read much into his choice of pronouns.
"Let me tell you first what I won't do: I won't hand over my energy policy to my vice president and not know necessarily what he's doing," Obama told the audience. "My vice president ... will be a member of the executive branch. He won't be one of these fourth branches of government where he thinks he's above the law," an apparent reference to Vice President Dick Cheney's handling of his office.
A combative Obama said that McCain "doesn't know what he's up against" in this election.
Obama, campaigning in a state where he hopes to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win in more than three decades, implored his supporters to fight for the presidency.
Those believed to be on Obama's short list for vice president stayed mum.
Biden coyly told reporters staking out his home in Delaware, "I'm not the guy," as he drove by. Sebelius, in an interview with the AP before she stumped for Obama in Michigan, professed no inside knowledge of when word would come.
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.
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Associated Press Writers Christopher Wills in Springfield, Illinois; Beth Fouhy in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Nedra Pickler in Chicago contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com
Obama: http://www.barackobama.com
