It's too early to draw any firm conclusions about who will win the presidency, but it's never too early to speculate.

But even if Romney doesn't pull off a BYU-style Miracle Bowl victory, he can finish the summer with  support across the country and thereby become a player in national politics for some time to come.

McCain has his flaws, but he probably wouldn't do too much damage as president, other than signing onto a series of unwarranted and expensive initiatives related to global warming. He would certainly be strong on national security. He would likely appoint a good Supreme Court justice if given the chance. His biggest question marks are his executive ability and his understanding of the economy, an issue growing more pressing by the day.

McCain has been criticized by the right for what the left touts as a great virtue -- his "reaching across the aisle" to Democrats. Many Republicans view such reaching as capitulation. But for the sake of argument, let's take virtue. If McCain is indeed the uniter he claims to be, let's see how he now reaches back to the suspicious conservatives in the Republican Party who believe he's a Democrat in disguise. Let's hear how he plans to make common cause on conservative principles with those to whom he pays lip service while standing at every photo opportunity with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, one of his more liberal colleagues on everything but the military.

Ideology is not the key reason that McCain is the frontrunner. The biggest reason is Mike Huckabee, who siphoned off a significant number of conservative votes from Romney. Without Huckabee, this would be a wholly different race in many states -- Georgia, Florida, Missouri, possibly even California.

West Virginia would not have resorted to an idiotic system in which losing candidates can combine against a winning one. In that state on Super Tuesday, Romney was the true winner among voters with 47 percent. McCain, in third place, threw his votes to Huckabee, which resulted in a Huckabee "victory" of 52-47 percent.

But any fair analysis would also recognize that Romney has flaws as a politician. Some who observed him on the campaign trail thought him more comfortable with spreadsheets than with anxious voters. He made accurate but esoteric arguments in debates. His humor does not come easy.

So the question arises, with McCain in the driver's seat, should the Republican Party seek to use Romney in some significant capacity going forward? McCain, by his own admission, is weak on economics.

It's still a long way to November. And who knows exactly how the elderly and ever more quirky John McCain will hold up. If Romney wins a significant chunk of the remaining states, he would carry a  message to the GOP convention in September.

So why hold back on speculation? We can't help thinking that Romney would make a fine choice for vice president. If McCain is outreaching enough to bring him on board -- and assuming Romney's own ego would allow it -- the Republicans might have an unbeatable ticket. Romney would draw conservative support in many states outside the Bible Belt, and his economic expertise would be a political asset in a wobbly economy. His managerial skill and experience as a chief executive in business and as governor or Massachusetts might complement McCain's prickly Teddy Roosevelt style.

News reports say the two men don't get along. But campaign foes have worked together in the White House. Lincoln named his three greatest rivals to his cabinet; John Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson for his running mate; Reagan tabbed George H.W. Bush as vice president, which gave the GOP a lock on the White House for 12 years. McCain-Romney could do the same.

If you listen to talk radio you'll hear some conservatives claim to be so angry about a McCain nomination that they'll become "suicide voters," pulling the lever for a Democrat in November. We think this is a fantasy. If McCain is the nominee, conservatives will overwhelmingly hold their nose and vote for him. The alternative -- for them, at least -- is unthinkable.

But they will have to get animated to win. Democratic turnout for the primaries nationally has so far has dwarfed Republican turnout. If that can be repeated in November, we'll likely see Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the White House.

But while the game is still on, we see reason for Romney supporters, McCain haters, Republicans, conservatives and even the old Reagan Democrats to be optimistic about the election. They simply need to do what's good for their party instead of their egos.