Who Will McCain Choose for Veep?

Now that he has it all cinched up, John McCain has to pick a vice-president. Who he chooses could help him court conservative voters, or could further alienate them:

“For Reagan in 1980, age was a big question, was a bigger issue than it is for McCain,” said McCain adviser Charlie Black. “The day Reagan picked George Bush, it went away. People looked at it and said, ‘Oh, we know this guy, we know he can handle it.”‘

By contrast, Americans were so disenchanted with Bush’s vice president, Dan Quayle, that the Bush team considered but decided against dumping Quayle from the ticket in the elder Bush’s 1992 re-election bid, which he lost.

McCain aides made clear McCain is a long way from picking someone, saying the campaign had not yet even begun to set up process by which to evaluate potential vice presidential nominees.

Some names that have been floated include:

(Colin) Powell, 70, has said he does not want the job but Brinkley said Republican Party elders might be able to persuade him.

“Powell is someone everyone could imagine as president,” Brinkley said.

Two possibilities include Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, 51, who could help McCain win the battleground state of Florida in the November election, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, 47, who could do the same in Minnesota.

There are plenty of other names: Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who says she does not want it; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham or South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford; Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour; Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former White House budget director Rob Portman, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio.

What about good ol’ Fred Dalton Thompson? With Johnny Mac being so old, and having said before that two terms might be a bit much, Fred Thompson could just step right into the presidency. I might not lose my lunch voting McCain/Thompson.

Who would you like to see McCain pick?