If, in the very unlikely event that McCain does win by the third ballot, there might be an opportunity for those candidates who have enough delegates to make a deal with McCain. The two most likely candidates are Huckabee and Romney. The other candidates are not likely to have enough delegates to put McCain over the top if he does not win by the third ballot.
First, Huckabee hates Romney because he is a Mormon so Huckabee and Romney will not deal to stop McCain. That leaves it to Hucakabee or Romney to deal with McCain.
Huckabee wants to be president but will settle for the vice presidency believing that is the his path to the presidency.
Romney does not want to be vice president, though he did (and maybe does) want to be president.
My first prediction is McCain will deal with Romney because doing so will allow McCain to pick his own running mate in exchnage for many of Romney's people being named to key cabinet positions--State, Defense and Commerce.
My second predictin is that McCain will pick none of the other presidential wannabes as his vice presidential running mate because there is much more talent outside that pool than inside it.
Thank you. That was brilliant.