I don't see McCain choosing someone who is completely unknown outside the hard right. My guess is Lieberman, for both political and personal reasons-- they're a mutual admiration society.

I think McCain wants to choose Lieberman. But if he wants to do something smart and really stick a finger in the eye of the Dems, he`ll go with Kay Hutchinson. Sure, he doesn`t need the help in Texas.

But with Obama the likely nominee there may be enough residual anger with older white women in the Democratic party that they would vote for McCain so long as there is an older white woman on the ticket.

Just FYI, the standard life tables give McCain about a 15% chance of dying in office during his first term.

Now, these are certainly wrong -- he's richer, has better healthcare, and I haven't medically underwritten his life -- but it's a fair guess based on publicly available information.

Interestingly, they hate all the traditional choices -- Tim Pawlenty, Condi Rice, Mitt Romney -- because that would further show that conservatives can't trust John McCain.

No mention of Mark Sanford? I thought the fundies would like Pawlenty or Rice. Are they trying to sick Romney on McCain just because they hate McCain so much?

You think the people who believe that a candidate with a firebrand pastor is really a muslim will believe McCain is a day over 65?

Dennis, don't you think the stress and workload of the presidency more than offset any life expectancy benefits of McCain's gold-plated healthcare? Heck, even a layabout like Bush is showing some serious age after eight years of being president.

Paul, those people don't really think he's a muslim. They just know they can't say N*****, so they say Muslim as a surrogate word. You can tell by that coy look they get on their faces when they say it.

And that 10% doesn't really matter. They are deluded conservatives who always vote Republican anyway, even when they are registered as Democrats.

Are there polls showing that age is enough of a consideration that voters truly care about the age and experience of McCain's VP v.s. someone else's VP? Personally, age is the least of my concerns when it comes to electing a President. Presidents are figureheads for ideology. If Obama was McCain's age, I would be voting for him for the same reasons I am now and wouldn't care less about his age. I understand that there is more foreign policy consideration for the executive. Therefore, what I want in a VP is someone who shares Obama's sensibilities on foreign policy (and certainly NOT someone whose ideology is sufficiently different that the case for him/her rests solely on the fact that we can affect some obscure voting group in a swing state to vote Dem in the GE.)

I'm terrified that he'll pick David Petraeus.

I also think that Bobby Jindal would not be a terrible pick, though the too young/too old extremes might highlight both problems.

I don't think choosing Petraeus would be so great. Outside of Washington, Iraq is a political sinkhole. Choosing Petraeus would emphasize that McCain is a militarist with little interest in domestic issues. "We're actually winning in Iraq" is not going to be a successful campaign slogan.

If the wingnuts really and truly believed in their cursed ideology, they would all band together and insist that McBush choose Richard Cheney as his running mate.

My gut tells me that the "Ready to be President" factor will be a very significant factor for McCain, but also for Obama given the underlying and unspoken concern that he may be attacked in office. Obama should carefully consider this concern when choosing a VP. Among Dems, I think this should narrow the field to people who are seen as ready to step in as POTUS.

That leaves only Dodd, Richardson, Biden (maybe), Clark, Clinton, Gore (I know...), Nunn, Mitchell.

But his best pick would be Edwards, IMO. He's run a camopaign and people have envisioned him as Presidant, so they see him as ready. He reinforces the change theme. He can help with working class whites.

They just know they can't say N*****...

I don't get the asterisks. If you write something and we all understand what you wrote, how is that any different than saying the word "NIGGER"?

As a voting resident of the Second Congressional District of Ohio: OH PLEASE GOD NOT ROB PORTMAN. The man is a lightweight and a party hack. And isn't he too close to Bush for this to be a good thing? (He played Kerry in Bush's 04 debate prep, for pete's sake.)

Fred, many nice people here are offended at the sight of words that demean other races, and do not have any desire to write them out. In addition, we no desire to capitalize them.

El Vaj, because I care about peoples feelings and don't feel the same joy you do from shouting racial slurs.

It's a sign or respect to those who that word was designed to belittle. I think we all know thats something you don't understand.

El Viajero, you're creepy.

The wingnuts probably wouldn't want Rice because she's pro-affirmative action and supposedly pro-choice.

I thought the fundies would like Pawlenty or Rice.

A guy who scrambles to look as moderate as possible to stay in power, or a single black woman? Yeah, those are straight out of the fundie playbook. Rice would be an especially comical choice for a campaign that will be relying so strongly on having its surrogates shriek "Scary negro!" over and over. (NB: I'm talking about McCain's campaign, not Clinton's.)