Laboring, I suspect, under the erroneous impression that it will hurt him, The New York Times has recycled yet again the "news" that in 2001 Sen. John McCain contemplated switching parties, and that in 2004 Sen. John Kerry asked Sen. McCain to be his running mate.

"The episodes shed light on a bitter period in Mr. McCain's life after the 2000 presidential election, when he was, at least in policy terms, drifting away from his own party," wrote Elisabeth Bumiller last Monday.

Neither story is news. "For Kerry Aides, McCain Would Fit the Bill as Running Mate," read the headline of a Boston Globe story April 6, 2004.

"Democrats Say McCain Nearly Abandoned GOP," said the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill on March 28, 2007. The Hill was recycling a rumor that first appeared in June 2001. At that time Mr. McCain said: "I have no intention of leaving the Republican Party, nor have I ever displayed any intention."

In the course of beating these dead horses, Ms. Bumiller acknowledged "there are wildly divergent versions of both episodes, depending on whether Democrats or Mr. McCain and his advisers are telling the story." The fact that Mr. McCain didn't switch parties or become Mr. Kerry's running mate suggests the McCain camp's account is closer to what happened.

The New York Times evidently hoped to increase disgruntlement among conservatives unhappy with Mr. McCain for his frequent deviations from Republican orthodoxy. But most conservatives are already familiar with these stories, and most of the few who aren't tend not to be regular readers of the Times.

However, many independents and Democrats who will be unhappy if the candidate they prefer does not win the increasingly bitter fight for the Democratic nomination, do read The New York Times. How better to reassure them that Mr. McCain is a safe alternative if their preferred candidate doesn't win than to suggest that Mr. McCain contemplated becoming a Democrat?

President Bush won two elections through base mobilization. But because of the unpopularity of the president and earmark-addicted GOP lawmakers, the Republican base is dispirited this year. This election will be won in the center, as most elections have been in the past. I suspect Sen. McCain is grateful to The New York Times for burnishing his independent, centrist credentials.

With the demolition derby in the Democratic Party taking center stage, Mr. McCain largely has been banished to the wings. This hasn't hurt him. He's overtaken both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in head-to-head polls. Once the Democrats select a nominee, the gap almost certainly will close. Mr. McCain needs to use the time when Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton are sniping at each other to increase the stature gap between him and them.

Sen. McCain's credentials on national security policy are unassailable. But if there are no attacks on our homeland and Iraq remains relatively quiet, domestic economic concerns will dominate the fall campaign. Mr. McCain's credentials here are not so strong (though stronger than those of either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton).

Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt has a suggestion for burnishing those credentials: "If Sen. McCain selected a running mate early and set about the country with a team of advisers that will accompany him into the executive branch in some capacity, the contrast with the rapidly deteriorating Democratic front bench would be profound."

An additional benefit of Mr. Hewitt's suggestion would be to put more distance between Sen. McCain and the Bush administration. So I think naming a vice presidential candidate early would be a good idea. But who?

I argued in a column Feb. 3 that the best running mate for Mr. McCain would be Chris Cox, currently chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. I'm pleased to see others since then have been touting him, too, most recently Brendan Miniter in The Wall Street Journal last Tuesday. Picking him early would give the country more time to become familiar with this extraordinary man.

Mr. Cox remains my first choice. But Mitt Romney's been growing on me. His credentials as an economic turnaround artist are as unassailable as Mr. McCain's on defense. And the Democrats -- through amazing stupidity -- have put Michigan in play. Mr. Romney is more likely than any other to turn that state from blue to red.