I really dislike getting ahead of myself.

After all, Republicans have just nominated Donald J. Trump to be the next president of the United States. The GOP convention delegates are happy — I guess — at the prospect of their party nominating someone who had launched what amounts a hostile takeover of the party.

So now we can call Trump the party’s nominee. No “presumptive,” or “presumed” or “pending” adjective is required.

Now he and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, his running mate, will get to march off arm-in-arm to wage political battle against the Democrats’ nominee-to-be, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

OK, why am I getting ahead of myself … maybe?

Republicans will adjourn their Cleveland convention on Thursday. The delegates will gather themselves up and go home.

Then the Democrats will convene their convention in Philadelphia.

How do you suppose the Democratic Party can suck the air out of the proverbial Republican room?

Here’s an idea: by allowing Clinton to announce her vice-presidential pick on Friday.

The two frontrunners for the Democrats’ VP slot now appear to be U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa.

Imagine the PR value of Clinton announcing her selection a single day after Republicans have pulled the curtain down on their own show in Cleveland.

They would expect to have the stage all to themselves over the weekend.

My gut tells me that Clinton and her team are quite close to deciding who she should select. They might have decided already. The only thing left is for Clinton to call the also-rans to give them the news that they ain’t the one.

If it’s Kaine, Vilsack, or Housing Secretary Julian Castro, or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker or — what the hey? — the current vice president, Joe Biden, it’s going to be big, huge, gigantic news that yanks the political world’s attention away immediately from Trump and Pence.

Timing is everything, man.