Joe Lieberman, who died Wednesday at 82, came within one Sarah Palin of being vice presidential nominee of both major parties in under a decade. 

Al Gore selected the Connecticut senator to be his running mate in 2000. Republicans mocked the ticket as “Sore Loserman” during the subsequent fight over Florida’s hanging chads. But John McCain also considered Lieberman after winning the GOP nomination in 2008 and might have pulled the trigger if he had sufficient standing among social conservatives to weather an abortion-rights veep partner.