With regards to Malcolm, I can think of a thousand reasons to keep him and I have complete faith in his ability to turn it around for himself, however, he is an "unknown" on Bikal. Pretty much everyone else, dependent upon their post-show involvement, is a known factor. For this reason alone do I even consider putting Malcolm in the pile of possibilities.Now as to Cochran...
You obviously have a personal feeling about him and that shouldn't cloud your judgment.
I just don't see the other survivors looking at Cochran with as much distaste. More often they have spoken of him as ally-able.
Anyways, knowing these attributes about Cochran means had he arrived on a tribe of newbs, then YES, he would be immediately targeted for his past betrayal, his lack of challenge ability and basically "bringing nothing to the table".
However, with returnees, there are more than one of them thinking they can use him as a shield and a vote for MANY TCs to come. IOW, they think they know who he is, what to watch out for and feel as if they can always get rid of Cochran later on.
So, for your sake, I hope Cochran either changes his game plan completely, which it sounds like he has the intention of doing. OR well, there isn't really anything else he can do. You'll have to keep your fingers crossed peeps play the way you want them to.
Personally, since we've already gone there. I don't mind Cochran at all and without scratching the bully-scab, my thoughts on Jim and Whitney are much worse.
Anyways, I'm pretty confident that the first boot will NOT be a tribe splitting vote so it has to be someone that the returnees feel LEAST comfortable with. And the only unknowns this season on Bikal are Francesca, Malcolm and Corrine.
And on Gota: From the caps it's becoming quite clear that Eddie, Hope, Reynold and Michael have formed an early alliance.