In writing about Pawlenty’s place on the GOP VP shortlist, Ambinder keeps it short and sweet: “He’s the favorite.” In an audio interview, Ambinder elaborates: Pawlenty is “a fabulous surrogate … who McCain has grown to really like … [and] who people close to McCain say quite frankly he had settled on a year ago.” (Check below the jump for a transcript of Ambinder’s remarks about TP.)

Meanwhile, PiPress reporter Rachel E. Stassen-Berger gripes that, of late, Pawlenty’s printed daily schedules are frequently blank, even on days — such as Thursday — when the governor in fact has newsworthy speaking engagements. By her count, 29 of 71 daily schedules so far this year have read “No public events scheduled.” Distributing a faux-clear calendar ensures media won’t be around to document the extent of Pawlenty’s efforts as McCain’s second-banana-apparent.

More: See previous VP or not VP posts.

Continued: Click “Read more”Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R), another oft-mentioned potential veep pick, takes the opposite tack, posting a detailed daily schedule on his Web site. Crist doesn’t seem to give much advance notice (today was still empty as of 6:30 a.m.), but an hour-by-hour diary of his doings (and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottcamp’s!) is accessible in all its mundane glory going back almost a year.

Ross Douthat, who blogs for The Atlantic, interviewed Marc Ambinder, a political analyst for The Atlantic, about John McCain’s vice-presidential choices at The Atlantic’s Web site. Here’s a transcription of the Pawlenty portion of that interview:

RD: So let’s talk about Veepstakes for a moment, because you just wrote –

MA: Sounds like a cereal. 

RD: It does, a little bit, yeah. A very tasty, delicious cereal.

MA: Veepstakes — it’s like you can almost imagine little berries, little blueberries.

RD: Little blueberries, perhaps shaped like the head of —

MA: Sam Nunn.

RD: Or Tim Pawlenty, who you listed. You just did a blog post listing who you think, based on your reporting and your guesswork, are the front runners for the vice presidential nomination on both sides, and I thought maybe you should just run through those on both the Democratic and the Republican sides. So …

MA: Well, start with Republicans. It is very easy. John McCain is likely — well, do I want to say likely? I’m not sure —

RD: Say it!

MA: All right. I think John McCain — I think there’s a fair chance that John McCain picks Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who is a fabulous surrogate for him. Someone that McCain has grown to really like, brings a lot to the ticket in many ways. And someone who people close to McCain say, quite frankly, he had settled on a year ago, and that’s one of the main reasons why I bring up the name, not because of any of the tangential or the political factors. It’s just that people close to McCain say that McCain had pretty much made up his mind a year ago. And there’s nothing so far as I can tell that would have changed McCain’s mind.