Condi doesn't impress me one bit, and I would not be tempted to vote for any ticket if she were on it. I just think it would make good political sense on McCain's part to pick her, it would bring residual Bush support to his candidacy and defuse the Democratic rainbow schtick of a black or woman (or both) running for President. It wouldn't be the first time a President was stuck with a VP he was incompatible with.

And I wouldn't count out the Neocons just yet. The infrastructure they've built up since Reagan is still strong, it will take a generation of successful Democratic governments to fully dismantle it, and besides, that mentality has been around a long, long time, at least since the fourth century BC. One electoral defeat is not going to make them go away. They may have their philosophical problems with McCain, but they will make every effort to make themselves indispensable to him, for a price.