Whom should Sen. McCain choose, for his running-mate? I think that, since he’s a westerner who has been a U.S. senator and representative, he should balance the ticket by choosing a conservative who has been a governor from a state that is in the eastern half of the U.S. John Ashcroft would be the perfect choice. Although he ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate and lost to a dead man, he was later the U.S. Attorney General for four years, during the war against terrorism. That experience would help him, as the running-mate and as the VP. Many Republicans think that McCain is too liberal, but they know that Ashcroft is conservative.
If McCain wins the election, whom should he nominate for some cabinet positions? I think that he should nominate these people: Secretary of State, Dirk Kempthorne; Sec. of Treasury, Ed Schafer; Sec. of Defense, Mel Martinez; Sec. of Homeland Security, Asa Hutchison; Attorney General, John Sweeney; Sec. of the Interior, Richard Pombo; Secretary of Agriculture, Frank Keating; and Chief of Staff, Newt Gingrich.
Perfect choice for what? The perfect choice to ruin McCain's campaign? As you correctly pointed out, he lost an election to a dead man. He was largely unqualified to be Attorney General, and everyone knew that he was only appointed AG because he lost the Senate race and Bush was throwing him a bone for being a good party guy. He's generally regarded as a pretty poor AG.
More importantly, though, no one likes him! McCain needs to distance himself from the Bush administration, not embrace it.