Via Greg Pollowitz, I see that Matt Cooper is talking up a McCain-Powell ticket on the theory that McCain should choose “amplification over diversification.” We’d have amplification, all right: The ticket would be 100 percent composed of old military guys who don’t excite the party’s base and don’t do economics.

Cooper’s post gives us a preview of how the media would cover a conservative vice-presidential pick by McCain: “If he were to pick someone who disagreed with him on campaign finance reform, a gay marriage amendment to the constitution and global warming it would be hard to mount the Straight Talk express in quite the same way.” I don’t think that McCain’s “straight talk” appeal is premised on the idea that he can’t even tolerate people who disagree with him about, say, a constitutional amendment on marriage. McCain and Powell don’t agree on abortion. But Cooper has no straight-talk concerns about that type of “diversification.” If McCain gets the nomination, watch for the media to try to impose a standard where he doesn’t get to have friends to his right.