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Wlady, you misread me. I did indeed say that looking four or eight years down the road was an essential consideration. But I didn't say it was the ONLY consideration. In my long series on who should be Veep, I insisted that the FIRST qualification was readiness to be president at a moment's notice. In fact, in my first column on the subject, on Feb. 14, after a few paragraphs saying what conventional wisdom considerations should NOT affect his choice, I then opened the meat of the column by listing the essential qualifications for the job. Here are the very first words in that discussion: SO WHAT QUALITIES are important? The most essential quality is a patently obvious ability to handle the job of president. Not to be morbid, but McCain is a 71-year-old man who has survived torture and several bouts of cancer. Voters will want assurance that the Veep could step in at a moment's notice.

I could not have been more insistent. That's why neither Palin nor Jindal even made my eventual list of the 15 best choices. Indeed, both of them made my original list of 35 only by way of illustrating the talent pool, but from the start I grouped them among those of whom I was "utterly convinced they would not be at all the strongest choices."

Maybe my little mind has hobgoblins, but at least I'm consistent!! ;)