With the Republican race solidifying for McCain, we can finally move on to the next favorite pastime for political pundits — reading the tea leaves for vice-presidential selections.  These are off-the-cuff and  subject to rethinking.

McCain:

Obvious choice: Huckabee.  The possibility of an already existing “grand bargain” between McCain and Huckabee has been a topic of speculation for some time.  If the plan was to take down Romney by using Huckabee to play on anti-Mormonism and down-home old-time religion to syphon away social conservatives, it worked brilliantly.  And the corrupt-feeling collusion between McCain and Huckabee operatives in West Virginia to deny Romney a win feeds this speculation.  Huckabee may well be the Ray Sullivan to McCain’s Arnie Vinick.  But Huckabee’s selection would alienated Mormon voters and other members of the Republican coalition who detest the brands of religious intolerance and disingenuous “who me?” dirty tricks that have been the staple of Huckabee’s campaign.

Smart choice:  Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.  Young, energetic, a long-time McCain supporter through bad times as well as good, Pawlenty is just the right understudy for a McCain presidency.  Pawlenty is also the only major Republican officer-holder in a “blue state” to survive serious challenge during the bloodbath of 2006.  Regionally, Pawlenty can extend McCain’s appeal to areas where McCain is currently weak.  Pawlenty would add multiple strengths that complement McCain’s quite well.

Weird-but-fun selection: Newt Gingrich.  Not only would Gingrich’s selection help heal deep divisions with conservatives, but it would also add colorful dynamism to supplement McCain’s dreary rhetorical plodding.

Hillary Clinton:

Obvious choice: Bill Richardson.  Richardson would add foreign policy heft to Clinton’s domestic policy expertise.  And Richardson would be unlikely to ruffle Clinton’s prickly ego and need to dominate.  A Richardson VP would be vulnerable to perceptions of the Clinton administration mark II, however, where Hillary would be merely a shadow of the last Clinton administration.  And sequels only rarely exceed the original in popularity.

Smart choice: Joe Biden.  Biden’s foreign policy heft is superior to Richardson’s as is his stature.  Biden is also a more engaging and dynamic speaker, an essential component as the VP is often the administration’s designated attack dog.  There is some risk, however, that Biden would outshine Hillary at some points.

Weird-but-fun choice: Bill Clinton.   He’s operating in the role of co-candidate anyway, we may as well make the designated hatchet man role official.  And at least then his inevitable presence at Cabinet meetings would be institutionally justified.  As it was in the 1990s, the Clinton administration is inevitably going to be a drama-queen soap opera.  May as well make it as entertaining as possible.

Barack Obama:

Obvious choices: Same as Hillary Clinton — Richardson or Biden.  In Biden’s case, there would be less risk that he would outshine the top of the ticket.

Smart choice: Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.  Her unexpected endorsement has helped boost Obama’s recent surge.  And her moderate style is a good match for Obama’s.  Napolitano also provides good regional balance to a ticket where Obama is already strong in the South but could use help in the West.

Weird-but-fun choice:  Arnold Schwarzeneggar.  What better way to make the point about a post-partisan campaign than to appoint a moderate Republican as VP?  OK, so it’s unconstitutional.  Who cares?  The image of the Governator in the VP debate is gold.