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By Jennifer Harper

Unconventional

The invitation — it's in the mail, right?

Make nice with Vice President Dick Cheney or else, cautions a Wall Street Journal editorial.

"Now would be a good time for Candidate McCain to step in and say publicly, 'Of course, my good friend the Vice President will be there.' The longer he waits, the worse this is going to get. By signaling that a sitting Republican Vice President might not be welcome at a Republican convention, the McCain campaign is handing the press corps an opening to fill the next few weeks with stories highlighting a divided GOP. Come convention time, you can expect lots of on-air jokes that the missing Mr. Cheney 'must be at an undisclosed location.'

"Democrats will love it, and, sure enough, only a day after the news broke about the Vice President's possible noninvite, the Obama camp rolled out a Web site called 'The Next Cheney.' This should make clear that the real target of those attacking the veep is Mr. McCain. If the Senator gives the impression that he agrees that Mr. Cheney is not fit for decent company, he'll demoralize his friends and encourage his opponents.

"By not having a ready answer, the McCain camp is making the story bigger than it is — and it will only get worse unless the Senator intervenes and invites the Vice President to his nomination party."

Laff riot

Actually, neither of the presidential hopefuls appears to have a whole lot of decorum left at this point. Both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama will appear in fake campaign ads on what — PBS? C-SPAN? No, the pair will be seen on Thursday's season finale of "Last Comic Standing" on NBC — along with such luminaries as comic Jon Lovitz and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, famed for his scatalogical doggy puppet commentary.

During the 30-second spots, Mr. McCain claims to be the campaign's funniest candidate, then threatens a heckler. Mr. Obama advises viewers to consider his bowling prowess, then unceremoniously leaves the dais. Mr. McCain taped his spot at NBC last month during an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." Mr. Obama used a set right in Washington's Omni Shoreham hotel last week.

But, hey. The show may draw up to 10 million viewers, and viewers sometimes vote. The TV/voting booth relationship already has been quantified, in fact. According to University of Maryland economists Craig Garthwaite and Tim Moore, Mr. Obama's recent appearance on "Oprah" garnered him over 1 million potential votes.