A McCain Cabinet

All around the Internet, bloggers, reporters and other writers are starting to speculate about who might be in a John McCain White House -- who his running mate might be and who might be in his cabinet.

A story by Dan Nowicki in the Feb. 18 issue of The Arizona Republic started the recent speculation about McCain's cabinet, and has fueled much of the recent talk.

Here are Nowicki's picks:

• Secretary of State: incumbent Condaleeza Rice, Lieberman or Deputy Secretary of State John Negraponte
• Attorney General: actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson
• Homeland Security Secretary: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani
• Secretary of the Treasury: former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm
• Health and Human Services Secretary: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee

In this article, Washingtonian writer Garrett M. Graff expands on Nowicki's list of potential economic advisors under a McCain administration:

• FedEx’s Fred Smith
• Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer
• Wall Street guru Warren Buffett
• Former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman
• Investment banker and former commerce secretary Pete Peterson
• Former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin
• Former congressman Rob Portman
• Former congressman John Kasich (as possible head of the Office of Management and Budget
• Former Goldman Sachs executive Lewis Eisenberg (as possible commerce secretary)

Graff says attorney general candidates could include:

• Former Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine
• Fred Thompson
• Deborah Wong Yang, former US Attorney for California

Among the Democratic possibilities for the National Security Council, secretary of stated or defense secretary, Graff names

• Former defense secretary Bill Cohen
• Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart
• Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn

Graff speculates that McCain could also keep Bush appoointee Robert Gates as defense secretary.

Although many pundits have tossed the name of Joe Lieberman around as a possible candidate for vice president, Graff doesn't think the Connecticut Senator's credentials as a Democrat-turned-Independent will play well with the GOP's conservatives. Lieberman will undoubtedly have a place in a McCain cabinet, Graff says, but other McCain cabinet members could possibly include:

• Longtime McCain aide Mark Salter
• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
• Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

According to this column in the San Francisco Chronicle, Zac Coile offers a list of possible McCain economic advisers:

• Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers
• Former Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina
• Former eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman

"Political Junkie" Ken Rudin offers his thoughts on McCain's running mates in this story at NPR.com:

• Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
• Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
• Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
• Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
• Mike Huckabee
• Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
• Joe Lieberman
• Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
• Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
• Former Ohio Rep. Rob Portman
• Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
• South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford
• South Dakota Sen. John Thune

Undoubtedly there will be many more lists to come before the Republican National Convention settles most of the speculation in September, but the articles included in this list will no doubt serve as a starting point for many of the political projections to come.