Today as I browsed the international news reports, I discovered an interesting article from the TimesOnline.co.uk about who McCain may pick as his VP running mate. The article posted some good suggestions beyond the standard Mike Huckabee answer – especially now as Huckabee starts his comeback tour.

If, and I do mean "if", John McCain does win the Republican primary, he will have to be very careful on who he picks. Tim Hames of the Times Online poses three reason why McCain has too be ultra careful:

1) The US vice-president post has been "revolutionized" under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from a "pitcher of warm spit” (as stated by John Garner, Franklin Roosevelt's VP) into a de-facto "deputy president". Since it is highly unlikely that any future VP will want to go back to the "warm spit" job, it means who ever gets picked as McCain's running mate will have a lot of work to do.

2) McCain is in his 70's… if he dies, while morbid – it is a possibility, his VP would become president. That means whoever gets chosen as his running mate will need be creditable enough to one day be president.

[@more@]3) Right now the Democrats have the "lime light" in this battle (mainly because of the Clinton-Obama face off). When it comes time for the final election, McCain will need a VP with LOTS of name recognition as he can not afford to waste time educating the American people on who his running mate is.

With those three reasons staring him in the face, McCain has quite the decision to make (assuming Huckabee does upstage him). That is why Mr Hames final pick in his article is so striking – General David Petraeus.