FWIW, 16 years ago, before GWB's total financial dominance made his nomination unstoppable, Steven Forbes and Dan Quayle were serious candidates. Let the pundits whine about alternate spellings of potato all they want, Quayle was a heck of a statesman as VP.
Think how different the world would be today if we had eight years of Forbes/Quayle or Quayle/Forbes.