Veepstakes- Volume 1

Now that John McCain has all but wrapped up the Republican nomination, I am going to begin a new feature, where for as long as is applicable, I will monthly offer my unsolicited advice as to whom he should have on his Vice Presidential short-list.

Since this is the first edition, I will offer some brief explanations:

These names are who I want to see him picked, and in what order of prefererence I would rank them. (My number one is a solid number one for instance). These are not necessarily who I think he is leaning to and in what order. I will try to cover that aspect in my weekly discussion of campaign events.

First, some quick words about who will not be on the list:

In a perfect world, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Second Lady Lynne Cheney would be included, but that's not probably very realistic this year. There might be a lot of talk, and deservedly so, about General David Petreaus, but he will continue to be needed in Iraq this year. The GOP does have a lot of rising stars, such as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Alaska Governor Sarah Pallin, and South Dakota Senator John Thune, just to name a few, but either because they may be too young, too new in their jobs, or because of the fact that I do not think a Republican ticket of two sitting U.S. Senators would be a good idea, they are probably not as realistic as the others. There is one name that I would have planned to include, but I just discovered that his on again off again marriage is now headed to divorce court, former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, thus rendering him extremely unrealistic. If I were John McCain, I would realize he needs the support of grassroots conservatives, many of them quite religious, and thus he should put heavy emphasis on people who are married, and still married to their first spouse.

So, here is my list of the top realistic possibilities that I hope McCain considers:

1. Mitt Romney- former Massachusetts Governor and 2008 Presidential candidate
2. Tim Pawlenty- Minnesota Governor
3. Christopher Cox- SEC Chairman and former California Congressman
4. Rob Portman- Former OMB Director and former Ohio Congressman
5. Mark Sanford- South Carolina Governor
6. Bob Riley- Alabama Governor
7. J.C. Watts- former Oklahoma Congressman
8. John Kasich- former Ohio Congressman
9. Haley Barbour- Mississippi Governor
10. Condoleezza Rice- U.S. Secretary of State

To my readers, feel free to weigh in on who you would like to see, especially if you actually want to see McCain as our next President.