McCain picks a vice president

Word is that McCain's settled on a vice president; the name will reportedly be released late tonight, after Obama's speech. Who should it be? I confess I haven't a clue. I know it should not be Joe Lieberman, whose name has been floated in recent days. A Lieberman pick would be a disaster. Aside from Iraq policy, Lieberman's a doctrinaire liberal Democrat; if McCain dropped dead (hey, he's old and has had cancer), the president would be a politician almost as liberal as Barack Obama. That would be impossible for Republicans to swallow.

What about Tim Pawlenty? I take it for granted that Pawlenty's a good man and an effective governor, but nobody knows him. It's an underwhelming pick, especially compared to Biden, who will bigfoot him in the debates. I doubt Pawlenty would do harm, but would he help? Doubt it.

Same with Romney. Is anybody excited about a Romney pick? Really? Romney's certainly capable of stepping into the chief executive's chair, and I think simply because he's so well known and capable of holding a national stage, he'd be a stronger pick than Pawlenty. But a very safe pick.

Last night on cable, they were talking about Meg Whitman, the eBay CEO, as a possible pick. That would be bold on several obvious fronts, but in the end, given the problems facing the next president, does McCain really want people to think about turning the country over to a business executive with zero political experience should something happen to McCain? I can't see it.

A Republican colleague made a suggestion to me earlier this week that struck me as absurd at first, but which on reflection has a logic to it: Condi Rice. Rice would be a bold pick, certainly -- black, female -- but also a reassuring one to many people. She's believed to be more liberal on social issues, which would give her appeal to moderates. Plus nobody can doubt that she'd be ready to assume command if McCain were to die or resign. And her training is in Soviet studies, which would make her especially useful in figuring out what to do with resurgent Russia, which is going to be one of the top foreign policy challenges of the next administration.

The thing that makes her distasteful to me is her role as a formulator and executor of Bush's foreign policy. The thing is, though, McCain is in every respect that matters an exemplar of Bush foreign policy. People who aren't going to vote for McCain because of this aren't likely to be persuaded by anyone he picks, so he's not going to lose them by picking a key Bush adviser.

So, a Rice pick makes sense. But nobody's talking about her much, so if McCain were to pick Rice, it would come out of the blue. It would be a real jolt, actually. In a good way.