With Obama the nominee presumptive – though everyone’s staying close to the wires these next few days, just in case Hillary pulls a killer rabbit out of the hat – thoughts have turned to his VP. Bama’s put together the standard “three-person commission” to hunt through the names they’ve already been sorting through for months. Here’s a few of the possibles:

Hillary, of course: She’s gotta be considered, although all discussion of whether she actually wants the gig is just airwave-filling speculation at the moment. It’s only going to happen if Obama’s in-depth polling of swing states like Ohio shows that animus of pro-Hillary groups to Obama appears deeper-rooted than your usual post-primary pique. Electoral-wise the pros are many and obvious. There’s a couple of cons – there is a phalanx of Obamicans – Republicans tempted over to barrack for Barack out of a belief that their own party has passed up the chance to offer real change, and that the content of that is less important than the fact that it occurs. But they’re vastly outweighed by Hillaryites.

The big con of course is that if Hillary runs for Vice-President, there’s a possibility she may become vice-president. Then Obama has to govern with the whole Clinton family cult in the big house. Mind you, there are ways of working that out. Well may she say RFK, for come November 5, the bullet might pass over Obama’s shoulder and tragically ….

Bill Richardson: Governor of New Mexico, primary candidate who dropped out early, and would have been a front-runner if Obama hadn’t decided to run. Inner party heavy and former Clinton supporter whose switch to Obama was a crucial swing in the superdelegate shift. Crucially hispanic, a group whose vote is split 55/45 between Democrats and Republicans, was heavily slanted to Hillary, likes McCain for his immigration amnesty laws, and is suspicious that blacks will get a better deal than Latinos from Obama, porcine-wise ….

Sam Nunn: Jimmy Carter’s pick, an uber-senator from Georgia, former head of Armed Services Committee, and nudging 70. That’s a lot of whammies – a white southerner, just in case Obama can’t get the good ol’ boys back, a military heavy, an eminence grise. But would that neutralise McCain – or take the gloss of Obama, turning the ticket into another old white guy with a front?

Clare McCaskill: junior Senator from Missouri, 50ish, so on the boomer-border. White, from a central southern state, all of which were Clinton country, and some experience on defence committees.

Amy Klobuchar: Much longer shot, liberal Senator from Minnesota, mid 40s, if Obama was really going to head in the wind of a generational change ticket. Whispering campaign, most of the whispering coming down phones with Minneapolis area codes.

Chuck Hagel: Republican from Nevada. Crusty old white guy, seriously conservative on a lot of domestic issues, who was one of the earliest and most insistent critics of the Iraq war and the wider Bush foreign policy. Whether that would reassure or further alienate people suspicious of Obama’s foreign policy chops remains to be seen. Jim Webb is another long term GOPite who recently became a Democrat on those and other grounds. But he has seriously low public visibility.

John Edwards: to scoop up the southern whites. If Obama was thus inclined, Sam Nunn offers more selling points plus that.

Jimmy Carter: Well, he’s eligible, having only served a single term as President. Yes it would be a terrible idea, but how freakin weird would it be?

Sheryl Crow: Has the weirdness factor of the above, while possibly more credibility than Carter as a potential commander-in-chief in time of crisis.

Jed Bartlett: Wait, don’t be stupid. Already served two terms

Dick Cheney: In your heart you know it make sense.