Who Will Be John McCain's Running Mate?

It has been one of the longest, most hard fought presidential primaries in history. After months of campaigning, John McCain finally secured enough delegates to guarantee his party's nomination for president. Now he turns to the task of picking a running mate.

Selecting a running mate is an important process, but it can be a confusing one as well. John McCain has had a reputation as being a maverick. He stymied pundits who said that his candidacy was dead, so don't be surprised if he surprises everyone yet again with his VP pick.

Conventional wisdom says that McCain will need someone to offset his reputation as being too liberal. Many conservatives and evangelicals have a strong dislike for McCain and a wise VP choice could help raise his standing in conservative circles. That counts out Rudy Guiliani, who is known to be more liberal than McCain. If he sticks with other past candidates, that would seem to narrow his choice to Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

Romney was eyed with skepticism by many in the conservative base, both for his Mormon religion and for his prior stances on abortion and gay marriage. That leaves the door open for Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister who is beloved in evangelical circles, but who may have harmed his vice presidential chances by over staying his welcome in the primary season. Huckabee himself has said that he has no interest in being vice president, but that could have been ingenuous posturing. A place on the national ticket would almost guarantee him a boost at the start of the next election cycle.

Knowing McCain's penchant for going against the grain, expect to hear some wild card names come up. Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, once Al Gore's running mate, has been mentioned as a possible pick. If Lieberman becomes McCain's running mate, it would represent a stunning blow to the Democratic party. Lieberman became an Independent when he lost the Democratic primary for his Senate seat. He ran as an Independent against the candidate that was hand picked by the Democratic party- and he won.

A true wild card pick would be trailblazer Ron Paul. While this wouldn't help McCain's cause with the conservative party base, it would pull in a large number of Independents. Paul's candidacy excited a large group of people that had never backed a candidate before. He could ensure a high turnout among voters.