IS JOHN BOLTON RUNNING FOR VICE PRESIDENT?

I somehow missed John Bolton's recent efforts to interest Republicans in a possible Bolton presidential run in 2012. Today Rich Lowry at National Review Online is giving Mustache Man some free publicity:

We mentioned our favorite dark-horse candidate for president, John Bolton, yesterday. I checked in with him about the state of his campaign.

First, on its rationale, which he discussed with the Daily Caller recently: "We just don't have enough discussion on national security. Obama views it as a distraction. None of our candidates are talking about it on a serious, sustained basis."

On the long odds: "I have absolutely no illusions as someone who hasn't run for elective office before. But I have been talking to people about it to find out whether they break out laughing. I'm sometimes met with a dumbfounded look when I mention it, but most of people then say, 'Well, why not?'" ...

Bolton says he, of course, wouldn't seek to build a political machine on the order of, say, a Mitt Romney, but doesn't think he would need to to have an impact and -- who knows? --catch a wave somewhere....

It occurs to me that no longtime GOP A- or B-lister for 2012 -- Palin, Huckabee, Romney, Pawlenty -- has anything resembling foreign policy cred. The folks whose names have popped up more recently -- Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Chris Christie -- are in the same boat.

I've speculated that if Palin is the nominee, she might make a crazy running-mate pick -- Michele Bachmann, say, or Allen West, the wingnut blowhard and war criminal who could be the tea party's best-known (and perhaps only) elected official if he wins his House race this fall.

But what if Palin isn't the nominee? Or what if she is, but cooler heads prevail when she and her crew pick a running mate?

I think it could be Bolton. Why not? His area is foreign policy. The Belrway defines him as "serious." And we know you suffer no penalty, ever, in national politics for being 100% wrong about anything if you're coming from the right.

So get ready: Palin/Bolton? Huckabee/Bolton?