For VPs, Trust? Who Needs Trust?

DENVER -- I'll confess both ignorance and agnosticism about Time's  reporting that Sen. John McCain has "settled" on Mitt Romney. I just don't know. We will see.

But if it is Mitt Romney, and if Barack Obama has indeed chosen Sen. Joe Biden, as Time also insinuates (and as a report, one that I have a better feeling about), note, then, that both Obama and McCain would seem to have settled on the consensus Washington choice. DC establishment types with Rs after their names long ago settled on Mitt Romney as the "obvious" best pick for McCain; the Biden consensus came a little later, but it exists. IF Obama has picked Biden and IF McCain has chosen Romney, then both men will have rejected the proffered advice that they only choose someone they completely and explicitly trust and in trust's stead, followed some other guidance.

Does McCain have warmer feelings after Romney? Sure. We can buy that.  Does he trust him? I mean, I can remember some of the things that McCain said about Romney, in private, that were imparted to reporters on an off-the-record basis, things that were meant to convey the impression that McCain just didn't like the guy and, most of all, felt he could not be trusted. A lot of current McCain advisers felt the same way.

Trusting Biden is less of a sell, but there are many Democratic contenders -- Daschle, Dodd, Kaine, Sebelius -- who Obama clearly trusts more.