One is a former beauty queen. Another is a business icon.
Others are governors, senators and diplomats.
All of them are women.
The race is now on for John McCain and Barack Obama to choose
a running mate and - call it the Hillary legacy - speculation
is running wild that either, or even both, candidates will
pick a woman.
Hillary Clinton may have failed in her bid to become the
United States' first female president, but her
ground-breaking campaign has paved the way for other women to
get on the ticket as vice-president.
As the Clinton-Obama battle demonstrated, mobilising female
voters with a strong woman candidate can be a powerful
political tool.
Mrs Clinton's defeat by Mr Obama has left a large swath of
disillusioned supporters who could be impressed by a
candidate who picks a woman for the party ticket.
"There is a lot of advantage to be gained from it, especially
on the Democrats' side," said Prof Tracy Osborn, a political
scientist at the University of Iowa.
"They have a lot of people who backed Clinton recovering from
a long fight.
Picking a woman might appease them."
Since Geraldine Ferraro became the only woman so far to
appear on a presidential ticket, in 1984, the pool of
possible women candidates - especially among governors - has
grown enormously, and for both candidates the bounce earned
by drawing on the talent pool could be considerable.
In a column last week, political writer Douglas Drenkow
argued that it was vital for Mr Obama to pick a woman.
He needed to do so, Drenkow wrote, not just as a matter of
Democratic politics but to lessen the impact if Mr McCain
went with the tide and selected a female vice-presidential
candidate.
"Do we Democrats want Republicans to beat us to the punch?"
he asked on the website OpEdNews.
Top of potential Democratic picks is Kathleen Sebelius,
Governor of Kansas.
She has shown the political nous to win popularity for
Democrats in a state that in recent history has been strongly
Republican.
At 60, and as a two-time governor, she would bring
much-needed age and experience to Mr Obama's campaign.
But Ms Sebelius is not alone.
Another name being bandied around political circles is Claire
McCaskill, a senator from Missouri.
Despite strong pressure to endorse Mrs Clinton, Ms McCaskill
backed Mr Obama and helped him to win her home state.
Since then, she has been a highly visible campaigner for Mr
Obama.
Missouri is likely to be a vital state in the November
election and picking Ms McCaskill could boost Democratic
chances there.
Finally, there is Mrs Clinton.
The narrowness of Mr Obama's win means that Mrs Clinton's
name has to be on any shortlist for vice-president.
Picking her would perhaps offer the best chance of healing a
divided party.
