I'm not looking for sympathy, but writing a weekly market perspective piece is hard. Forget the time it takes, just coming up with fresh ideas that make sense is a cause of weekly anxiety that usually starts around Thursday. It's no wonder that one of my market strategist heroes, Barton Biggs, used to occasionally write a book report or he discussed his most recent mountain climbing expedition in his weekly market research for Morgan Stanley - he needed a break from writing what he thought was going on in the market or what stocks to buy or sell.

Given that I feel like I'm sounding like a broken record with market strategy - "BUY LEADING GROWTH STOCKS" - and I haven't compiled all my thoughts from last weeks ThinkTomorrow~Today conference, I'm going to go off the reservation a little bit and do a political forecast. I know polite people don't discuss religion or politics in public but this is a fascinating race with the consequences likely to have significant impact on both the country and the stock market.

With Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton still slogging it out for the Democratic nomination, I wanted to turn to who John McCain was going to select as his Vice Presidential Candidate. Being "one heart beat away" from the Presidency, this role has always been important but given that Senator McCain is turning 72 this August, who he selects as his running mate is even more critical.

Creating "scenarios" is the best way I know on how to develop a thesis about the future. Case Number 1, Case Number 2 and Case Number 3: Bullish, Bearish, or Neutral.

For the "if I were John McCain, who I would select as my partner" exercise, I've put my scenarios into five buckets: 1) The Southern Governor Strategy; 2) The Counter the Opposition Strategy; 3) The Northern Governor Strategy; 4) The You Only Get to Be President Once So You Might as Well Do It with Friends Strategy; and 5) The Commander in Chief Strategy;

Southern Governor Strategy: There is an argument to be made that a strong Southern Governor on the ticket could deliver a "W" from Texas to North Carolina. Leading contenders for the Southern Governor Strategy are: 1) Charlie Crist - Popular Governor of Florida. He delivered the Sunshine State for Senator McCain at a crucial time. On the negative side, he has only been Governor since 2006. 2) Mark Sanford - Governor of South Carolina; Conservatives love the 50-year-old Governor who was a strong supporter for McCain in the South Carolina win. 3) Hayley Barbour - Mississippi Governor who was also an effective leader of the Republican National Committee. 4) Mike Huckabee - former Governor of Arkansas. He is charismatic and likeable, strong with the Christian Right but weak with secular conservatives. 5) Rick Perry - Governor of Texas; popular Governor of the third largest State in the United States - probably tough to support on the heels of George W.

Counter the Opposition Strategy: Given that whether Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton is the ultimate nominee for the Democratic Ticket, it's a historical moment that many people will want to be part of. Some of the "smart guys" say the best way to win is to neutralize that by having VP Candidate who is either an African American, a woman, or both. Top potential VP candidates from the Counter the Opposition Strategy are: 1) Colin Powell - former Secretary of State and one of America's most popular and respected people; he would also be a strong candidate in the Commander in Chief Strategy. The negative side is that you effectively "double down" on foreign policy expertise and General Powell doesn't want the job. 2) Condi Rice - current Secretary of State and former head of National Security Counsel - very impressive intellect and experience; the negatives are being tightly linked to a currently unpopular President. 3) Marsha Blackburn - a rising star as political congresswoman from Tennessee. She is popular with conservatives but the negatives are that nobody knows her. 4) J.C. Watts - former Congressman and star quarterback from Oklahoma. He is charismatic and conservatives love him; but the negatives are that he hadn't done enough before he got out of the game. 5) Carley Fiorina - retired CEO from Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ, $47.29) and current Chairman of Senator McCain's Campaign - she has strong experience being one of the nations top businesswoman; her negatives are no public office experience.

Northern Governor Strategy: Some of the logic to this scenario is that Senator McCain will be strong enough to carry most of the South without a Southern Governor so he should look to strengthen his base elsewhere. Leading contenders for the Northern Governor Strategy are: 1) Tom Ridge - former Governor from Pennsylvania and the first Secretary of Homeland Security. Ridge could also be put in the You Only Get to be Friends Once so You Might as Well Do it with Friends camp as a long-time friend of Senator McCain. 2) Mitt Romney - the former Governor of Massachusetts is clearly the favorite VP candidate of the "money guys" of the Republican Party and he would be a good business person balance for McCain's strong foreign policy expertise. The negative side is that part of what appeals to many people about John McCain is his authenticity and having somebody as his Vice President who he clearly didn't like much during the Primary; this would seem phony to the believers. 3) Tim Pawlenty - Governor of Minnesota; the young and popular Governor from my home state is being touted by many as a great compliment to Senator McCain and could help deliver a key swing state. The negative is that he is light on experience and he didn't even deliver Minnesota in the primary against Romney.

You Only Get to Be President Once So You Might as Well Do It with Friends Strategy: McCain is well known for his Maverick tendencies and actually does best when he throws the textbook away and operates from his gut. Long-time and loyal friends of Senator McCain who would be on his short list include: 1) Joe Lieberman - "Independent" Senator from Connecticut and former VP candidate with Al Gore. Lieberman is a well respected legislator and a foreign policy expert. The negatives are that he lacks executive experience, seems old, and the conservatives might "stay home." 2) Rudy Giuliani - former Mayor of New York City - has shown clear effectiveness as an executive and crisis manager. The negatives are his messy personal situation and that he isn't a great "retail" politician. 3) Fred Thompson - retired Senator from Tennessee and current star on "Law and Order" and one of Senator McCain's good friends. True Conservatives love him and he has a lot of experience as a President, and Admiral and prosecutor, etc. The negatives are that he didn't accomplish much when he was a Senator and didn't inspire many in his Presidential run.

Commander in Chief Strategy: The belief that the person who should be chosen to be Vice President is the person who is best qualified to lead the country and be the Commander in Chief in case anything happened to the President (novel concept, huh?). Besides the aforementioned Colin Powell, Tom Ridge and maybe Mitt Romney who I would put in this category in addition to the one I put them in before, I would also include: 1) Michael Bloomberg - Mayor of New York City; Mayor Bloomberg has shown to be an incredibly effective and popular Mayor of one of the most complex cities in the world, and before that, he built one of the most impressive media businesses on the planet. The positives start with his gigantic competence; the negatives are that he isn't dynamic or even a Republican. 2) General David Petraeus - Commander General of the Multi-National Force in Iraq; General Petraeus was the quarterback behind the "surge" which has undisputedly (although I know I will get emails) worked. The negatives are that he has no elected office experience, and having General Petraeus as the running mate - the War would effectively be a one issue election.

So who do I think the Vice Presidential Candidate for Senator McCain will be? The Chairman and CEO of Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO, $26.51) John Chambers. Mr. Chambers doesn't really fit in any of the buckets that I outlined above with the possible exceptions of the Commander in Chief and You Only Get to Be President Once So You Might as Well Do it With Friends but he is totally consistent with John McCain's M.O. of doing what he thinks is smart, not what the "smart guys" kibitz about on "Meet the Press." John Chambers has been the CEO of one of the most impressive, innovative and global technology company on the planet, leading it from when it had $1 billion in sales to $40 billion and $160 billion market value. Being the Chief Executive of a fast growing, multi-faceted, international business has given Mr. Chambers real world experience that nobody else on this list comes close to matching. Cisco is renowned for its leadership in developing its people through training and investment in education, as one of the primary forces on developing the infrastructure to support the internet. Cisco and Chambers were pioneers and advocates in the critical area of online learning. Through his involvement in the World Economic Forum, John Chambers has, together with King Abdullah II of Jordan, created an education initiative in the strategically vital geography of the Middle East. In terms of balancing John McCain's strength in foreign policy and legislation, Chambers is one of the best organizational leaders in the world being on the forefront of the technology revolution in Silicon Valley and around the world. Food for thought...

Last week, stocks continued to act well led by our favorite growth stocks. For the week, the NASDAQ was the top performing index up 3.4%, followed by the S&P 500 advancing 2.7% and the Dow up 1.7%. Since the March 17th bottom, growth stocks, proxied by NASDAQ and the ThinkGrowth Index are up 16.1% and 19.8%, respectively, versus the S&P 500 up 11.7% and the Dow up 8.5% in that same period.

Our thesis has been and continues to be that in a world where growth is in short supply, sectors and companies that have strong organic growth will be in greater demand. For the first quarter, the S&P 500 had a negative 25% EPS growth, which was the third quarter in a row that earnings declined. Looking at the growth sectors of the S&P 500 - technology, health care, and telecommunications - those areas actually had positive growth of 10%, 11% and 10%, respectively. When you view the ThinkGrowth Index Composite, you see that despite the mainly industrial S&P had overall, a disastrous first quarter, earnings growth for the areas we care were strong.

In that ultimately, EPS growth drives stock price, we are confident in our strategy of buying the highest quality, fastest growing companies, knowing that we will ultimately be rewarded.

With an earnings yield for equities of 6.6% (14 P/E on 2008 earnings) and a bond yield of 3.9% for the 10-year note, equities overall are dramatically undervalued. Looking at the U.S. market compared to other global markets, it's interesting that it's ranked number 23 in the world in terms of EPS growth rates and yet it's the eight most expensive from a P/E standpoint.

What this is saying is that while we view U.S. stocks as attractive and particularly growth stocks, other markets such as Brazil, India, China and Russia are more attractive on a P/E to growth basis.

Our conclusion? - Get long or be wrong!