Re: irresponsible speculation

I'm not sold that McCain needs to, wants to, even should "shore up his questionable conservative bonafides."

First, because no matter what McCain does, he can't fully win over the conservative vote. He's going to lose some of them. Second, because McCain isn't known for following the conventional wisdom, particularly when the CW leans conservative. Third, because the CW also says this will be another bad year for Republicans, so McCain might just want to give everything a real good shake and see how things settle, instead of relying on the landscape at hand.

By going another route – say, by picking Lieberman - McCain would lose even more conservative voters, but would also pick up voters from the center and/or even from the Left. A right-center-left coalition, instead of the usual center-right.

Those further to the right who wouldn’t vote for a McCain/Lieberman ticket won't vote for Obama, anyway, and if McCain can then eat into Obama's votes, so much the better.

The real interesting part would come eight years later, assuming that McCain won twice: would Lieberman then want to run, and if so, as what?

I'm not endorsing this, and I'm not predicting it. I simply think McCain picking a good conservative isn't a sure thing.