The AP's Mary Dalrymple and Nedra Pickler just posted a highly speculative piece on who might be selected to join John Kerry's cabinet should he be elected in November. The list of names, though of no suprise to many in the blogosphere, is nonetheless interesting and worth reading through. Dalrymple and Pickler write,

The Kerry campaign is keeping quiet so far about specific prospects for Cabinet positions if the Massachusetts senator should win the presidency in November. But that doesn't mean no one is thinking about it.

"If he's doing his job as a candidate, he should be already developing lists of names," said Paul Light, a New York University professor and expert in presidential transitions.

Kerry has been trying to lure undecided voters with a decidedly moderate message and has said he might appoint Republicans to important positions. But Shirley Anne Warshaw, a presidential scholar at Gettysburg College, said that might provoke tension in a new administration.

"It looks good on paper. It looks good to the public. It is not a strategy that works in reality," she said.

Dalrymple and Pickler proceed to offer a few names as possibilities for each cabinet position. They include:

• State: Richard Holbrooke, Joe Biden, George Mitchell and Lee Hamilton.
  
• Defense: Wes Clark, Tony McPeak, Carl Levin, Gary Hart, Warren Rudman, Ike Skelton, John Warner and John McCain.
  
• Justice: Jamie Gorelick, Deval Patrick, Eliot Spitzer, Jennifer Granholm, Janet Napolitano, Joe Lieberman and Eric Holder.

There is much more information in the article.

I think it would be helpful for Kerry to provide at least a sketch of who might be in his cabinet to give him more surrogates to help him fight to win the White House. Although this might leave an opening for attacks by the Bush crowd, in my mind the positives of such an approach would dwarf the negatives.