With "John McCain is old" jokes practically becoming a campaign theme (first Letterman, now Joel Stein) it may be time to focus on the next big GOP nomination: that of the VP.

According to the New York Times, the process has already begun:

Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he had begun the process of weighing the names of possible running mates, and that he hoped to be able to make a selection before the Republican convention in early September.

"We just started this process of getting together a list of names and having them looked at, and I don't know how long it takes," Mr. McCain said in a radio interview Wednesday morning with Don Imus. "But if I had a personal preference, I'd like to do it before the convention to avoid some of the mistakes that I've seen made in the past, as you get into a time crunch and maybe sometimes don't make the announcement right."

Previously Mr. McCain and his aides had said that they were merely trying to settle on a process to try to select a vice presidential running mate, but that they were not yet making up a list of names.

Mr. McCain, 71, told Mr. Imus "I'm aware of enhanced importance of this issue given my age."

A small yet vocal group of social conservatives is already agitating against certain choices--namely, Mitt Romney, Jonathan Martin reports. "The veepstakes are, of course, especially important this cycle," he writes, "because whoever is tapped as McCain's No. 2 will be seen to have a leg up in either 2012 or 2016."

Meanwhile, the rest of the GOP faithful wait with baited breath.