mccain-wideJohn McCain says he hasn’t settled on supporting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for president in 2012, instead naming Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and two others as “very good candidates.” Video after the jump.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today, McCain expressed “admiration” for his 2008 vice presidential pick but listed Pawlenty when host David Gregory asked him about future Republican presidential prospects.

GREGORY: In terms of future leaders of the Republican party, would you like to see Sarah Palin become president?

McCAIN: I’d like to see her compete. I think we’ve got some very good candidates. (Utah Gov.) John Huntsman and — the problem when I run down these names I always leave out a name — (Lousiana Gov.) Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty. There’s so many. There’s a lot of good, fresh talent out there.

GERGORY: Would you support Palin?

McCAIN: Oh, I’d have to see who the candidates are and what the situation is at the time. But have no doubt of my respect, admiration and love for Sarah and her family.

The exchange was a virtual replay of remarks McCain made on ABC’s “This Week” in December, just weeks after the election, when he joked “my corpse is still warm.”

That suggests that developments since then — including Jindal’s widely panned Republican response to President Obama’s address to Congress and Pawlenty’s poor straw-poll showing at a conservative confab — haven’t discouraged McCain about the future of those two 2008 GOP veepstakes also-rans.

Asked today how the Republican Party can avoid permanent minority status, McCain listed several approaches: “Party of ideas, party of inclusiveness, outreach to other ethnic aspects of the American electorate.

“A lot of people complain about divisions within the Republican Party,” McCain said. “That’s good right now. Let’s let a thousand flowers bloom.”

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(If embedded video does not appear above, see the “Meet the Press” clip here.)