Who’ll be John McCain’s running mate?

Update 3/21 – Michael Steele’s name was floated by reader biyts1. After looking over his credentials, I certainly think he’s qualified, but I wouldn’t even begin to predict how that would affect the conversation about race in the upcoming months. Certainly an intriguing choice.

See our full list after the cut.

Who’d be Hillary or Obama’s running mate?

Update: Also, Tom Daschle would be a great fit, he’s a great negotiator and would really help Obama secure congressional support for his ideas.

Given that they wouldn’t pick each other, Hillary and Obama both have a lot of interesting choices for running mates.

Jim Webb – Good choice for Hillary as a strong balancing figure and a hawk to run against McCain. For Barack, not so much. He’s too much of a hawk, doesn’t fit the change platform, and isn’t exactly an uplifting guy.

Mark Warner – He’d be a great choice for either candidate, if they could convince him not to run for Senate in Virginia.

Bob Kerrey – President of the New School, is being lobbied to run for a Senate seat. He’s fiery and would deflect a lot of flak from the candidate, but he’s not exactly flashy or anything. Not a bad choice for either, I guess.

Bill Richardson – Bad choice for both. Bad debater, can’t think on his feet, not particularly knowledgable about anything, etc.

John Edwards – He’s not a bad choice, but I just think people are over him…

Kathleen Sebelius and Janet Napolitano are other good choices. Sebelius, in particular, is an up and coming governor.

Wesley Clark would work for Clinton, Joe Biden would be a great fit for Obama, and Elliot Spitzer would be interesting, too, but maybe a better choice for Attorney General.

Why is Huckabee still running?

• He’s backstabbing McCain by showing how much the base of the Republican Party actually hates him.
• He’s not in a position to gain leverage to demand a vice-presidential bid, plus he’s so diametrically different from McCain that it would probably be considered ridiculous.
• He’s not proving that he would be a good candidate in 2012, since he’s winning his basic constituency over and over again in every state. In other words, you can’t take what he’s done so far and in any way expect him to be able to build on it to the point of his being able to win a nomination.