McCain says he wouldn’t rule out Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania just because he’s pro-choice. Perhaps McCain thinks the conservative base is so freaked out about Obama that he can now get away with such heresy. (Beliefnet contributor Richard Land, a conservative Baptist, captured the typical conservative sentiment when he said recently that conservatives would rather have a third rate fireman –i.e. McCain–than a first-rate arsonist. That would be Obama.)

Still, I don’t see it happening. Religious conservatives would view it as a direct sign that McCain still views them as “agents of intolerance,” that his recent attempts at reconcilliation are fraudulant, and that a McCain presidency would be as much a war on them as a war on abortion.