I voted for Chan, Takahashi and Lysacek....
I'm not convinced that Plushenko's actually gonna make the Olympics. This might be my own lack of knowledge, but I don't know if his body will be able to withstand rigours of training COP programs to be (gold) medal worthy. Additionally, I question his drive here. With other comebacks, I see the athletes as trying to rewrite history a little bit and get that extra bit of Olympic glory (Cohen, S/Z). With Plushenko, there's nothing to rewrite - he's got two Olympics medals, several world medals... I just don't see why he's coming back (or more accurately, the reason I think he's coming back - to boost Russia's profile in skating at the Olympics - doesn't seem like it'd be a strong impeteus). Of course, truth be told, I don't know the full extent of his injuries.
Lambiel... similarly, I don't know if he can withstand the rigours of training to be COP medal ready.
So for the non-returnees, I went with Takahashi, Chan and Lysacek. Admittedly (at least with the first two) I was swayed by who I want to see and who I don't. But, from the rest of the candidates (and yeah, I think the top three will come from the above list).... Verner's a bit of a headcase and extremely unpredictable. I don't think I could ever predict him for a medal, but he's also talented enough to win. Kozuka and Oda are also great skaters, but with their chase for the elusive quad, they don't do as well on the PCS as they could. Also Oda has problems counting/muscle memory. Abbott is a bit too inconsistent as well, and always seems to peak earlier in the season.
So now it's four. Given that Joubert's been the most consistent skater this quadrennial in any discipline (and along with Belbin/Agosto, the most medalled COP skater ever), it's probably rather stupid to leave him off (especially when you consider that the people I've voted for only beat him by one medal when combined - a bronze). And it's especially stupid if you consider Takahashi's injury/surgery and we don't know how strong when he comes back. But the arguments (rationalizations) I have for those three sway me more.