[Kalimac]

It would have to be a hobbit, first of all - they're by far the least prone to dreams of regaining past glories, and they're not very powerful in themselves, so the Ring would take longer to work on them than on any of the other races. Sam would be the logical choice, but I'm not sure that would work out in the end - he and Frodo added together were a force to be reckoned with, but neither could have done well on their own. Firstly, Sam has only a sketchy idea of Mordor's geography, which is a stumbling block. And secondly, when he was bearing the Ring, and knew that the Orcs were going to find Frodo's body, he was ready to run back and fight them with literally no chance of success; his devotion to Frodo at that moment outweighed his devotion to the quest itself. It was only by dumb luck that Sam wasn't caught and the Ring taken from him. So wonderful as Sam is, I would not pick him as a second-choice Ringbearer. Pippin is also out; he has many good points but he's a little young and light to be relied on, and he's also fatally curious about everything. The same mind that wanted just one look at the Palantir would also want to try the Ring on just one more time, even when he knew better.

My vote would have to go to Merry. He's a good planner and schemer (look how he arranged everything at Crickhollow, and while Sam was the chief spy of "Conspiracy Unmasked" there's a definite impression that Merry was the leader). He's observant, but can keep his mouth shut - he knew about Bilbo's Ring and the Red Book, but never let on for years. He's brave, if not idiotically so, in strange places - the Old Forest and so on. And of course, having studied all those maps at Rivendell, he probably has a pretty good idea of the layout of Mordor and how to get to the Cracks of Doom. The Gollum factor is a tricky one; I'm not sure I can see Merry managing him quite the way Frodo does. But maybe, if he'd been bearing the Ring for a while, he might have started to understand Gollum in the same way Frodo did.