My understanding is that the law prevents presidential candidates from naming their cabinets in advance -- it comes from an anti-patronage effort that sought to prevent candidates from promising people jobs in order to get elected. But if Obama and McCain can't pull off the full-Waldman and name their cabinets, they could certainly leak their cabinets, and then deploy those individuals as constant surrogates and presences on the campaign trail. That would have the added benefit of letting these folks try out for the jobs when it would still be relatively easy to appoint someone different if they proved to possess unexpected failings.
