President Keating?

Naaah, probably not. Nobody's going to deny Hillary her payback for putting up with Bill for all these years. And Mitt Romney, Rudy, and Darth Queeg already have massive head starts on the GOP nomination.

But I'd vote for him, even if the idea of his candidacy is just hypothetical:

Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, who lost out to Dick Cheney to be President Bush's running mate, is now thinking of running for the nation's top political job, a longtime associate says.

Dan Mahoney said Monday Keating had lunch a few weeks ago with longtime political consultant Ed Rollins, known for his work on the late President Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign and as campaign manager for Ross Perot's unsuccessful 1992 presidential bid.

"It's just in the thought process right now," said Mahoney, aide to Keating at the American Association of Life Insurers. Mahoney was communications director during Keating's two terms as governor.

Keating has been president and chief operating officer of the Washington, D.C.-based trade organization since 2003.

"It's just something he is kicking around in his head and he hasn't made any decisions," Mahoney said of Keating's presidential aspirations. "He hasn't made any traditional steps such as forming a committee or anything. He's just talked to a few people."

Given the weakness of the known GOP field, I personally see no reason why Keating shouldn't jump in the race and make a real run of it. With his aforementioned business connections, money wouldn't seem to be an insuperable obstacle. And it wouldn't be a bad thing at all to have an ex-FBI agent in the Oval Office as the designated occupant rather than conducting investigations of same.

Hey, if people are actually speaking seriously about Barack F'ing Obama as presidential timbre, Frank Keating should start picking out Oval Office drapes.