Bobby Jindal.

Does Bill Kristol have any inside access to McCaindom, or is he just spouting off Fred Barnes-style?

Because if there's one thing I would respect less than giving Condi Rice the VP nomination, it would be Clarence Thomas. Neither one of these people is actually very good at his or her job, and neither has ever stood for elected office before. Either one would violate so many of the accepted customs of VP-picking that his or her nomination could only be seen as the most cynical tokenism. Which, of course, it would be. You can pick a black person or a woman without engaging in, or appearing to engage in, tokenism. J.S. Watts, for example, or Cathy McMorris Rogers or Sarah Palin would not be, and would not look like, demographic panders.

But Thomas adds the double insult of not even making political sense. Sure, the hard core of Bush dead-enders say they want more judges like Thomas (well, they used to, before they started saying they wanted more judges like Roberts and Alito). But nobody _likes_ the guy. Trent Lott would probably be more popular among both blacks and Republicans. And nominating a sitting justice of the Supreme Court for VP would please nobody on a practical level. Thomas would be under immense pressure to resign from the court if nominated. No way to Senate Democrats allow Bush to fill that vacant seat, and conservatives don't actually trust McCain to nominate someone like Thomas to fill court vacancies. In the meantime, the Supreme Court would revert to a 4-4 balance between raving reactionaries and pragmatic liberals. Removing Thomas from the court would also give a potential Democratic president the chance to create a moderate majority on the Supreme Court, something that otherwise would not be likely until after the 2012 election.

Bill Kristol is an idiot.

Jason Zengerle-

I know the Dem campaign is all consuming, but there's some news--unbelieveable newshere in NY:

According to the NY Times website:

GOVERNER ELIOT SPITZER IS LINKED TO A PROSTITUTION RING!!!!!!!!!!!!

"J.C. Watts," of course. Not sure how I managed to misspell the letter "C."

Here's the link to the Times story on Spitzer:

www.nytimes.com/.../10cnd-spitzer.html

And here's an excerpt:

"Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

"But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers."

I think J.C. Watts would be seen as a token selection simply because he is as dumb as a box of rocks.

And yeah - conservatives would completely out on McCain if he took Thomas off the Court, for the reasons Rhub mentions. Even saying he would be under 'tremendous pressure' to resign is an understatement. But conservatives do like him, at least in the "we always, always, always have his vote, merits of a case be damned" sense.

C-Clarence Thomas?

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

AH, Ah, eh.

(Short period of calm)

Muh huh.

Heh.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Sarah Palin.

Hmmm... maybe this Clarence Thomas thing could be perfect:

1) Get McCain to pick Thomas.

2) Have media outcry over conflict of interest as a candidate, and have him resign from the court.  (After all, Charles Evans Hughes did that when he ran for President in 1916).

3) Fortas-ize any Bush nominee to replace him to hold the appointment over until the new President and Congress

4) Obama beats McCain/Thomas in November.

We get the White House and tip the Supreme Court to boot!  Someone please nominate this man!

Woody, I hear you on J.C. Watts, but dumb or not, the man has actually won elections and served in elected office, and he's from a state where charismatic post-Clinton Democrats have been able to win. So in that respect, his appointment would not be an obvious or necessary act of calculated demographic tokenism.

(And I don't mean to say that either Rice or Thomas _are_ tokens now in their current positions. It's just the nomination of either one as VP that would be indicative of cynical demographic pandering on the part of the elderly white man doing the nominating.)

Sarah Palin, I believe, announced last week that she is pregnant.  Nothing scandalous about that, mind you, but how's that gonna feel six months from now on the campaign trail?

Where does Kristol come up with this stuff? Thomas is far and away the worst suggestion I've heard this cycle.  As for Petraeus, doesn't he have more important things to be worrying about right now?  I know we've had generals become candidates in the past, but traditionally they at least wait until the war is over.

As far as actual possibilities, Portman seems to make sense.  Jindal is intriguing, but picking him might make it seem hypocritical to attack Obama's inexperience.  My money's still on Charlie "one of the greatest governors in the history of this country" Crist.  He might present the same inexperience problem, but having the governor of Florida on the ticket is big strategically.

rhubarbs, I disagree, there have been quite a few VP's who didn't have elective office, or minimal elective office, most recently Dick Cheney (he didn't get his cred from the House, that is for sure) and GWHB the same. She is qualified and extremely bright. I do think she can only be on a ticket if Hillary leads the Dem ticket and Obama is not her VP. (both you discount). With Obama at the top, then I can see Sarah Palin.

cspencef: you're correct--she's due in May. I should say that I'm being facetious (mostly)--the thought of putting pro-life, tax cutting, NRA-member, clean government eye candy in front of the evangelical right and watching them trip over their tongues is nigh-irresistable.

cspencef, Palin said she's seven months pregnant and expecting in May.

(As an aside, you've gotta admire Palin for this: She's like totally hot and she's been getting heavy national attention as a potential VP for three months or more, and yet she managed to keep her pregnancy under wraps until the seventh month. Dick Cheney is not as good at keeping a secret.)

Anyway, no reason a woman who gives birth in May couldn't be campaigning in August when it really counts. She might not want to do such a thing, but there's no external reason for her pregnancy to make her less viable as a VP choice.

Watts would be a great choice because he's far-right, African American, and can tear Obama to pieces without having to worry about being tarred a racist. McCain needs a good attack dog. Michael Steele is another possibility, but probably not negative enough for the GOP veep slot.

Michael Steele is a soft, cuddly puppy in terms of the VP's putative attack-dog role. Plus, he's a lightweight on policy.

There would be a certain fun factor with VP Rice on the campaign trail. At least in terms of getting to quote her 9/11 Commission testimony back at her -- the bit where she complained that it wasn't actually her job as National Security Adviser to think up advice about how to solve problems with national security when all those damn whiny terrorism analysts kept warning her that something big was afoot in the summer of 2001. She basically complained that they kept coming to her with problems, not solutions, and what was she supposed to do about it, think of solutions on her own? Talk about not being ready to answer the red phone! Plus, she's a dreadful public speaker.

Kristol's  suggestion are hilarious. Condi Rice is just not political, has never won so much as a race for dog-catcher, and has all sorts of bad karma accumulated from her stint as NSA. The Clarence Thomas suggestion is simply bizarre. And for McCain, this choice is CRUCIAL. By the end of the campaign he's going to look like he's about a hundred and seventy-two. JC Watts simply won't cut the mustard.

Bobby Jindal is a bright light, and would be a great choice-- but he just got inaugurated about six weeks ago. He's got a lot of work to do right there in Louisiana, including trying to deliver the state to the Republicans in November. This will be much easier for him to do if The Queen of the Monsters manages to slime Obambi.

Natalie Portman.

Colin Powell.  According to Rasmussen Reports, he is the only big name endorsement that moves the public opinion polls in a positive direction.  What better endorsement of McCain than to sign on as Veep?

Ray Odierno??? Clarence Thomas???  Was this column from the Times or the Onion?

Seriously, I thought that the smart money was on Mark Sanford -- young, conservative, Southern and a governor, he would go a long way toward addressing (at least on paper) most of McCain's problems with the Republican base.  And with the added understanding that he could step up to run in 2012 if McCain decides he's had a little too much of the job.

I am also a big fan of Natalie Portman, but I think that she may be disqualified for the job as she is Israeli-born.

OK, if Palin is due in May then it's no big deal.  And hey, Alaska is pretty isolated from the rest of the country--keeping that pregnancy out of the national press is not as hard as the Gov. of New York trying to keep his hooker habit a secret...

On the other hand, I don't know how VP/New Mommy is gonna play with the more regressive elements of the GOP base.  

Colin Powell makes the most sense. Not that I want Reps to win, but they aren't stupid. It's a mistake to underestimate the side you dislike.

Something McCain recently said after seeing his physician that either Hillary or Obama needs to jump on:

-- Everything's fine," McCain told reporters during a news conference. "Like most Americans, I go see my doctor fairly frequently." --

Excuse me? Not only do most Americans not see a doctor frequently, they don't see one AT ALL because they lack health insurance. What an eyes-wide-shut statement!

Kevin-something above 90% of all voters have health care insurance. It's one of the main reasons it's so hard to get anything worthwhile done in this area.

Fred Barnes has weighed in on the GOP Veepstakes today, suggesting Mitt Romney as the most viable candidate

From the New York Daily News : On her plane flying to Jersualem yesterday, Rice called Biden a "statesman"