President: John Kerry
Vice-President: Bill Richardson
Sec. of State: Sam Nunn
Sec. of Defense: Wesley Clark
Sec. of Homeland Security: Gary Hart
National Security Advisor: Rand Beers
Sec. of Veterans Affairs: Max Cleland
Attorney General: John Edwards
Sec. of Labor: Dick Gephardt

More, of course, would follow. But let's form a real shadow government. Let's have Edwards release statements every time Ashcroft abrogates liberties, let's watch Gephardt give press conferences every time the RNC outsources campaign calling to India, let's see Rand Beers expose the inept counter-terrorism team he left because they weren't making us safer, let's see Rumsfeld's policy of oppositional engagement with "old" Europe and his love of "new" Europe criticized by the man who led Old Europe in freeing New Europe. And at the top, let's see John Kerry making Bush look like less and less of a President by the day. I want to see these Democratic luminaries criss-crossing the nation, stumping in their states and making the news. Let's show the American people that we'll give them a Government they can not only be comfortable with, but that they can be proud of.

I have to think a bit about the specific suggestions to see which ones I agree with (off the top of my head, I prefer Edwards as v.p. and Clark at State instead of Defense, but Hart at DHS is a wonderful choice) but the idea is an excellent one, and would generate a lot of news coverage in the months between now and the convention.

Update: Well, as I said, it's an important election, damned important in fact, but, like Billmon, I can't help thinking that perhaps this editorial from the Guardian, titled "John Kerry: The Hope of the World", might overstate things just a wee bit.

Update (3/8): Kevin Hayden weighs in with his Cabinet choices.