'Meet the Press' transcript for August 24, 2008

MR. BROKAW:  The Politico, which is one of the premier political blogs, is reporting today that senator--that Senator McCain now has Colin Powell on his list as a vice presidential pick.  Now I don't know who floated that.  What are the chances of Colin Powell?

MR. TODD:  Well, I'll tell you, I've done a decent amount of reporting trying to figure out who Colin Powell's going to endorse, which is still an open question.  I have no doubt that they're...

MR. BROKAW:  By the way, he told me that he wasn't going to make any decision until after both conventions were done and when the vice presidential candidates were selected.

MR. TODD:  That says something, yeah.

MR. BROKAW:  Now, would that include him or not?

MR. TODD:  Who knows?

MS. IFILL:  And he's not attending either convention...

MR. BROKAW:  Right, right.

MS. IFILL:  ...because--and especially--and more significant that he's not attending the Republican.

MR. BROKAW:  Right.

MR. TODD:  But what's interesting here is, I think, that he--McCain may very well want him on his short list.

MR. BROKAW:  Mm-hmm.

MR. TODD:  But the question is, does Powell want to be on anybody's short list.  And people forget I think Powell is over the age of 70, so would you--would John McCain want to have two--two folks on the ticket over the age of 70?  So this feels like--the McCain campaign's been very good this last 10 days on the VP buzz circuit...

MS. IFILL:  Mm-hmm.

MR. TODD:  ...in that they have not allowed the Obama storyline to dominate. They got the Joe Lieberman speculation out there, and it was a split-screen...

MS. IFILL:  Problems.  Every day.

MR. TODD:  ...every day.  Look, the McCain campaign's very good at daily news cycle fighting.  I don't know if winning the daily news cycle ultimately gets you the White House, but if you believe that it does, and there are some people that believe this, then McCain's doing a very good job.  Ultimately, I think that they're just having some fun.  And, look, having Colin Powell's name out there doesn't hurt John McCain.  But Colin Powell, I bet you, is very impressed with the Joe Biden pick.  That's somebody that he worked with very well in the Senate.

MR. BROKAW:  My own guess is that--and this is only pure speculation on my part--that sometime in the next week or so Powell will say, "Turn that off," that he doesn't want to linger as a prospective vice presidential candidate. He's trying to be above that political fray based on my conversations with him.

MR. TODD:  Look, the big fear, if I were McCain, by floating it, what if Powell says, not only "Turn it off, and, by the way, I haven't decided if I'm going to endorse you yet."

MR. BROKAW:  Right.

MR. TODD:  You know, that, that can come back...

MS. IFILL:  A blowback of that could be ugly.

MR. MEACHAM:  That's a nightmare scenario.

MR. BROKAW:  Yeah.

Thank you all very much.  It's going to be a very exciting week here in Denver.  I have a couple of things I want to remind people about.  And that is Chuck, of course, you'll be reporting all week long on MSNBC from midnight to midnight.

MR. TODD:  Apparently they...

MR. BROKAW:  Twenty-four hour cycle.

MR. TODD:  Hey, buddy, you're not getting away, either, easy.

MR. BROKAW:  All the, all the parts of it.

And, Jon, you're, you're moving over in our business a little step at a time.

MR. MEACHAM:  Very little, very little.

MR. BROKAW:  You've got a live webcast on newsweek.com.

MR. MEACHAM:  It's a brave new world.

MR. BROKAW:  It's a brave new world.  We're happy to have you there.  And Gwen, of course, we'll see you all this week on PBS on "Jim Lehrer" and other things.  And I'll be back in just a moment.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW:  That's all for today.  We'll be back next week live from the site of the Republican National Convention in the twin cities in Minnesota, St. Paul, and Minneapolis.  And of course, stay with MSNBC and NBC News over the next two weeks for full coverage of both party national conventions.  If it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS.

More from NBC News broadcasts   'Broken hearts' for fallen heroes   Author: Let's analyze Ft. Hood, not sanitize it Col. Jack Jacobs: Failure and tragedy at Fort Hood   20 years later, Wall’s fall still being felt   Army chief: More troops needed in Afghanistan House stages Saturday health showdown Follow on Twitter: NBC News | msnbc

MORE FROM MEET THE PRESS

Meet the Press Section Front

Nov. 8: Casey, Barbour, Rendell, roundtable, Brokaw Nov. 1: Tim Geithner, David Plouffe, roundtable Oct. 25: Cornyn, Schumer, Burnett, Sorkin, roundtable Oct. 18: Jarrett, Dodd, Kyl, Shriver, Podesta Oct. 11: Levin, Graham, McCaffrey, Myers, roundtable Oct. 4: Ambassador Susan Rice, roundtable Sept. 27: Bill Clinton, Paterson, Kyl, Webb Sept. 20: President Obama, Sen. Graham, Rep. Boehner, roundtable Sept. 13: Durbin, Cornyn, Dean, Gingrich, roundtable Sept. 6: Axelrod, roundtable Meet the Press Section Front   Add Meet the Press headlines to your news reader: