I haven't heard any other suggestions that make more sense.
Seems other agree and if this article is half true, this is the best guy out there....
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/12/mark_sanford_the_right_man_for.html
I agree. Let's be realistic here; John McCain may be many things, but he's not retarded. He knows he needs a young, charismatic, solid -- but not "scary" -- conservative.
We all know that *in the short run,* McCain is a heck of a lot better than Obama or Hillary. The argument to sit out is that in the long run, it will be better to rebuild the party instead of driving down the path of liberalism. But, if McCain picks a young conservative, we have a conservative as heir apparent to the party in 2012.
The math now becomes different. We now will have two options: We can have a moderate liberal President for 4 years, followed by a strong conservative heading the GOP ticket in 2012, or we can have a staunch liberal President for 4 years, and take our chances that we won't get stuck with another RINO in 2012.
If I'm enthusiastic about McCain's VP AND his VP is somebody who could win in 2012, I will definitely vote McCain in November. If I don't like McCain's VP (like, if he picks Lieberman), I definitely will NOT vote McCain. (Same math as above, except now we're guaranteed another RINO or worse in 2012). McCain knows this will be true of most solid conservatives.
Of the names most commonly bandied about, Mark Sanford seems to best fit that mold. JC Watts would be good except 1) he's probably not interested and 2) if Obama wins, picking Watts will probably be viewed as pandering.