According to anonymous Democratic officials, Barack Obama is in a general election–mindset and has begun a “top-secret” search for the veep slot on his Democratic presidential ticket, hiring former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson to assist him. Johnson performed this same task for Democratic nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984. Obama, when asked by the Associated Press, denied that he retained the services of Mr. Johnson.

If you were a part of this super-secret mission, who would be on your short list?

John McCain’s campaign said Wednesday that the senator will meet on Friday with two, possibly three, potential running mates for November, The New York Times reports.

The names surfacing from the Times’s anonymous Republican sources were two Southern governors, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Charlie Crist of Florida, as well as the possibility of Mitt Romney.

The punditry’s ongoing speculation over who’d best round out the GOP ticket largely has been based on several areas: age, ticket diversity, conservative bona fides and, in line with the Maverick himself, some reformist or nonconformist credentials. While Crist appeals to McCain because of his early and vocal support of the senator’s campaign and his ability to deliver Florida to him at a crucial juncture in the GOP race, many conservatives feel he falls short in these other areas.

Someone like Jindal, meanwhile, satisfies those areas but in the process also highlights his weaknesses: He is 36, which would make him the youngest vice presidential candidate ever (paired with McCain, 71, the oldest presidential candidate ever); he’s constantly labeled a brilliant reformist, but this title carries baggage in an election where the Republican nominee’s conservative roots are questioned; and as a Catholic convert from Hinduism who speaks openly about his faith, he presumably could make inroads with the Religious Right that McCain has often butted heads with, though the combination of lapsed Hindu and practicing Catholic may not play out that well with this demographic.

Though his resume is littered with the impressive turn-around of Louisiana’s Medicaid program as secretary of the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals and an advisory post to the Department of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration, Jindal has only four years of elected public service experience, three as a U.S. representative before moving to the governorship, a post he’s held for just a year and half. That makes him nearly a decade younger (and less experienced by several years) than Barack Obama, who constantly gets flak for being an unseasoned neophyte.

Like the electability problems plaguing McCain, no veep pick is likely to win total approval from the GOP’s base. “Crist is only 51,” writes Rod Dreher, “but he’s got snow white hair, and I can’t imagine that the image he would project with the septuagenarian McCain is what the GOP nominee wants when going up against Barack Obama. Shallow? Maybe. But this kind of thing matters.” Romney is still seen by many as damaged goods or to bring little of value to the ticket.

Another candidate whose name has been bandied about is dedicated McCainiac Sen. Joe Lieberman, who’s even been given the green light by conservatives like Bill Kristol and Newt Gingrich. On Fox & Friends Wednesday, Kristol talked the senator up again, revisiting points he made before a conservative Jewish audience in February (Lieberman should be “McCain’s preferred running mate”) and in March (the “most obvious way McCain could upend the normal dynamics” in November would be “a bold vice presidential choice” like the “hawkish and principled Democrat like Joe Lieberman”). He’s also extolled the benefits of a McCain-Jindal ticket in his New York Times column.

Lieberman, technically an Independent Democrat who caucuses with the Democrats after winning a hard-fought re-election where most of the Democratic Party apparatus—including Barack Obama—backed his primary opponent. Lieberman, meanwhile, seems to be trying to distance himself from the Democratic Party. Earlier this week, he gave a speech widely lauded by conservatives, and adapted into this Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which he bluntly scolded the Democratic Party as having “lost its way.”

John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, as he is known these days, is “getting together a list of names” of potential running mates and would like to announce his choice sooner than later. “I’d like to get it done as early as possible. I’m aware of enhanced importance of this issue given my age,” said the 71-year-old candidate, adding that the list was in the “embryonic stage” and contained “every name imaginable”— about 20 in all. “If I had a personal preference I’d like to [choose a running mate] before the convention to avoid some of the mistakes that I’ve seen made in the past as you get into a time crunch and maybe sometimes don’t make the announcement right or maybe they have not examined every single candidate.”

If you were John McCain, who would be at the top of your list?

In the latest New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg writes about John McCain’s options in selecting a vice presidential running mate:

If McCain really wants to have it all—to refurbish his maverick image without having to flip-flop on the panderings that have tarnished it; to galvanize the attention of the press, the nation, and the world; to make a bold play for the center without seriously alienating “the base”—then he can avail himself of a highly interesting option: Condoleezza Rice.

To deal first with the obvious: Rice may be “only” the second woman and the second African-American to be Secretary of State, but she is indisputably the highest-ranking black female official ever to have served in any branch of the United States government. Her nomination to a constitutional executive office would cost McCain the votes of his party’s hardened racists and incorrigible misogynists. They are surely fewer in number, though, than the people who would like to participate in breaking the glass ceiling of race or gender but, given the choice, would rather do so in a more timid way, and/or without abandoning their party. And with Rice on the ticket the Republicans could attack Clinton or Obama with far less restraint.

Read his entire assessment here.