When will the VP Spots be announced?

As there seems to be never ending speculation about who will win the so-called "veepstakes" on both sides., I thought it would be a good time to point out that we are still weeks away from knowing the answer to this question.

Tradition is that the party that currently controls the White House to hold its convention after the other party (why? who knows.) So the order this year will be Democrats, then Republicans.

However, the Democrats have to worry about the Summer Olympics so they pushed their convention to August 25th-28th, and the Republicans (going second) will hold the latest convention in recent history on September 1-4.

How soon before the conventions will the respective VP choices be announced? Listed below are the dates the nominee announced the selection of his running mate and corresponding dates of the convention…

• 2004- John Kerry/John Edwards- Announced July 6th (Democratic Convention: July 26th-July 29th)
• 2000- George W. Bush/Dick Cheney- Announced July 25th (Republican Convention: July 31st-August 3rd)
• 2000- Al Gore/Joe Lieberman- Announced August 8th (Democratic Convention: August 14th-August 17th)
• 1996- Bob Dole/Jack Kemp- Announced August 11th (Republican Convention: Aug 12th-15th)
• 1992- Bill Clinton/Al Gore- Announced July 10th (Democratic Convention: July 13th-16th)
• 1988- Michael Dukakis/Lloyd Bentsen- Announced July 13th (Democratic Convention: July 18th-21st)

(Source)

So almost every running mate has been announced days before the party’s national convention. So the Democratic choice will probably be announced on or around August 21st (To get a full news cylce in before the convention) and the Republicans will announce on or around August 28th (same reason)