BARACK OBAMA-JESSE JACKSON: "Our time has come!" His time has gone.

OBAMA-JESSE VENTURA: Former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee had Chuck Norris watching his back. Why shouldn't Obama have a former pro wrestler with demonstrated electability watching his? Both men champion change. Ventura proved that sometimes voters care more about one's message than one's experience.

OBAMA-CLAIRE MCCASKILL: A good idea, but both are from the Midwest. Obama and Missouri's McCaskill aren't partisans, but they share an independent streak. She is a fighter but, like Obama, knows when to hold her punches.

As the first female veep, she could boldly go where trailblazer Geraldine Ferraro didn't. Unlike Ferraro, feminist McCaskill doesn't have a two-ton chip on her shoulder or feel the need to advance her sex with a reverse discrimination defense.

OBAMA-AL GORE: If Obama is about change, can he really reach into the past to march into the future? Gore could be the exception. Some people want Gore back in the White House because they feel he was robbed by hanging chads in Florida and a biased Supreme Court decision.

Gore has the actual experience that Clinton only thinks she has. Obama could use an experienced partner in the executive branch.

If Nobel laureate Gore becomes a veep again, Obama could put him in charge of energy issues. That may be the only way to get him interested in returning to the boiler room that is the White House. Energy was Dick Cheney's main gig as Dubya's veep, except Cheney worked for Big Oil instead of for the people.

Gore would start a green revolution of the people, by the people and for the people. He'd make sure the United States signed Kyoto on Day One.

OBAMA-JOE BIDEN: You can tell that the senator from Delaware wants to support Obama but is trying to be cautious so as not to incite the Clintons' infamous wrath. (See Bill Richardson.)

Biden and Obama are constitutional scholars. Both are liberals, but Biden can be hawkish on defense, something Obama should consider carefully, along with Biden's experience. Their administration wouldn't stomp on civil liberties or the Constitution. Both understand transparency in government and checks and balances.

Biden has run for the presidency but has not gotten far. This may be his last chance to get to the White House.

OBAMA-RUSS FEINGOLD: Feingold should have run for president but decided not to enter the race. Some people, including yours truly, were disappointed. He has since dropped below the political radar. Wisconsin's Feingold was critical of the extraconstitutional excesses of the Bush II doctrine and foreign policy blunders. He would be a good partner for Obama, except both are from the Midwest. (See McCaskill.)

OBAMA-CHRIS DODD: Obama has co-sponsored some Dodd bills in the Senate. Like minds think alike. The senator from Connecticut would bring to the team some gravitas — the good kind. (See Dick Cheney.) Like Biden, Dodd knows his way around the Beltway and knows the law. With such strong foreign policy credentials, Dodd would be ready Day One.

OBAMA-MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: People keep wondering when they will quit flirting and start going steady. They like and respect each other. Bloomberg could clarify some issues, especially for Jewish voters wary about an Obama presidency.

OBAMA-JOHN EDWARDS: I was an Edwards Girl until he dropped out. This ticket would bring back Edwards and make both angry whites and angry blacks one big happy family. Maybe not, but after the harm the Clintonites have caused on the campaign trail, it couldn't hurt.

Edwards is strong on health care and has plans for reforming post-Katrina FEMA and closing the wage gap among U.S. workers.

OBAMA-BILL RICHARDSON: Viva ! Clintonites called the New Mexico governor a "Judas" for dropping out and then backing rival Obama. (See Raging Cajun). As governor, he has budget experience. Richardson's passport is full of the credentials an Obama administration needs to advance diplomacy and reverse the militaristic pre-emption policies of Bush II. "Ambassador" Richardson understands treaties.

OBAMA-HILLARY CLINTON: If she were the last man on earth.

OBAMA-DAVID COPPERFIELD: Prestidigitation may do what elocution could not: make the Rev. Wright controversy disappear.

Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (lokeman@kcstar.com) is a columnist for The Kansas City Star. To find out more about Rhonda Chriss Lokeman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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