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POPSMcCain-Jindal? Another McCain staffer called my attention to this finding in the latest Fox News poll: McCain led Obama in the straight match-up, 46 to 43. Voters were then asked to choose between two tickets, McCain-Romney vs. Obama-Clinton. Obama-Clinton won 47 to 41. That reversal of a three-point McCain lead to a six-point deficit for the McCain ticket suggests what might happen (a) when the Democrats unite, and (b) if McCain were to choose a conventional running mate, who, as it were, reinforced the Republican brand for the ticket. As the McCain aide put it, this is what will happen if we run a traditional campaign; our numbers will gradually regress toward the (losing) generic Republican number.
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POPSRomney Joins McCain On Fundraising Trail Since then, McCain has praised Romney repeatedly as someone who is certain to continue playing a large role in the GOP. Romney, for his part, has suggested that he’d accept the No. 2 spot on the ticket, though some Republicans privately speculate that he’s looking ahead to 2012 and a possible repeat run. Neither man appeared especially fond of the other during the campaign. Romney cast McCain as outside of the GOP’s conservative mainstream and a Washington insider who contributed to the problems plaguing a broken system. McCain, in turn, argued that Romney’s equivocations and reversals on several issues indicated a willingness to change his positions to fit his political goals.
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POPSPlaying By Obama's Rules To observe Democrats this week, savaging one of their heroines, is to understand why the party is unready to rule. This week, after being subjected for 48 hours to accusations of divisiveness by Barack Obama, and racism by his agents and auxiliaries in the media, Ferraro resigned from Clinton's campaign. What had she said to send the Obamaites into paroxysms of rage? Obama's agents suggest that Ferraro deliberately injected race into the campaign. But this, too, is ridiculous. Her quote came in an interview with the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif., not "Meet the Press." The attack on Ferraro comes out of a conscious strategy of the Obama campaign -- to seek immunity from attack by smearing any and all attackers as having racist motives. When Bill Clinton dismissed Obama's claim to have been consistently antiwar as a "fairy tale," and twinned Obama's victory in South Carolina with Jesse Jackson's, his statements were described as tinged with racism.
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POPSDances With Mitt>>>How Long Will McCain Play Coy? On the other hand, the Pennsylvania primary in on April 22nd, and it seems likely that Hillary will make up some ground there, keeping the competition alive. Having a Romney underticket, with its implications for party unity would be an excellent contrast with the shambles apparent among the Democrats. Aside from the perceptual issues, fund-raising gets that much easier as well. My guess? Two to three more weeks before McCain announces Mitt as running mate.
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POPS List Of Plausible Picks For McCain's Vice President
Five meet all the important criteria to be John McCain's running mate this fall. They are: Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, John Kasich, Rob Portman, and Chris Cox. They edge out other superb candidates such as Mike Pence, Mark Sanford, and Paul Ryan. (former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating.) To review, the best candidate 1) will be obviously ready to become president at a moment's notice; 2) will be a Reaganite conservative; 3) should at least put into play a state, region, or constituency that otherwise would be far less attainable for McCain or for a typical Republican; 4) should be well rounded, preferably with at least interesting non-political item on his resume; 5) should have some executive or serious organizational experience; 6) should be intelligent, widely respected, good on TV, and preferably "cool" in persona to balance McCain's sometimes fearsome intensity; and 7) should clearly be a reformer with a record of occasionally bucking the establishment on behalf of principle.
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POPSRomney Might Run Again in 2008 Romney's son Josh says it's possible his father might rejoin the race as a candidate for vice president or for president if McCain's campaign stalls.
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POPS Mitt Romney Endorses McCain Called Him A True American Hero Romney today was gracious, lavishing praise in prepared remarks on the man who defeated him. "This is a man who tied his political fortunes to the fortunes of his country in a time of war," Romney said. "Such courage is not always rewarded in politics, but it was this time – and that is a credit to both the man and to the party he will lead in the election of 2008." The difference was especially stark compared to the last GOP nomination battle in 2000. As opposed to the week Romney took before endorsing, it took two months for McCain to get behind George W. Bush after that bitter contest. And when he did so in May of that year he initially declined to use the word "endorse." Only after being asked by a reporter why he wouldn't formally offer his blessing did McCain say "I endorse Gov. Bush" -- and then he said it over and over again as if to show his annoyance.
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POPSA Very Moving Moment In Recent American Politics >>>>>Romney Takes One for theTeam<<<<< In which Mitt himself answers the question posed recently by InstaGlenn about whether Romney 2008 = Reagan 1976. What’s the best thing about this? The goodwill it’ll earn him among the party establishment for not dragging out the primary? The fond memory it creates in the mind of the base of a man willing to sacrifice his own ambition to support victory in Iraq? The venom it’ll draw from the left about him using the war as political cover for his own failure? Or the fact that it backs Huckabee into a corner by framing the continuation of his own campaign as effectively furthering the Democrats’ plans for withdrawal?
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POPS Sen John McCain Attends CPAC This Election Year! Seems John McCain now wants to make time to attend CPAC this Election Year to court Conservatives. Well, some so-called Conservatives have resigned themselves to the fact that McCain is going to be the Republican Party Nominee, well I for one refuse to allow the media to cram McCain down our throats!!! There is no way in hell that McCain should be allowed to walk in to CPAC and sale us a bunch of bs.
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POPSDisgraceful, Insecure McCain Campaign Manipulated Bob Dole It was not an endorsement of McCain in any way, shape, manner, or form! It's another instance here of McCain campaign manipulation. They are the ones using Senator Dole. They are the ones manipulating him. I'm thinking, you know, what I ought to do. I ought to take copy of this letter that Senator Dole sent me; put it on eBay; auction it off much like the Dingy Harry smear letter, and then give the proceeds to Mitt Romney! I'm just thinking about it. I'm absolutely not going to do it. Folks, let me hit you between the eyes and fire with both barrels, here. (sigh) It's uncomfortable. This is not a situation... This is not why I got into this business
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POPSTalk Radio Goes After McCain...........If McCain Wins, He Won’t Vote McCain>Back-room "electioneering"in W.Virginia? If McCain wins, he won’t vote Tuesday, February 5, 2008, 04:18 PM The Atlanta Journal-Constitution With presidential primaries rolling toward evening rush-hour, much of conservative talk radio — led by Rush Limbaugh — has convulsed at the thought of John McCain as the Republican nominee, and is pushing its listeners to Mitt Romney.
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POPS Romney Campaigns Throughout The Night The former Massachusetts governor, who tries to keep his body clock on East Coast time wherever he travels in the country, planned to sleep on the return flight, aided by a pillow, pink fleece blanket and inflatable mattress his campaign staff brought aboard in Oklahoma. His entourage, including his brother, Scott, and longtime friend, Bob White, spread out through the rest of the plane, one person on each side of the aisle across the 26 rows of seats. All were given blankets and pillows, along with a takeout dinner from the Outback steakhouse. "I mean, it's an honor, obviously, it's an enormous honor to even be considered as a candidate for president and to know that there will be hundreds of thousands and hopefully millions who will say, `You're the guy we'd like as our next president.' It's a very humbling honor," he added.
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POPS PATTERICO ENDORSES MITT If the swing towards Romney in California continues , he will emerge from Tuesday's contest in a solid second place with a new narrative and a renewed debate about the race --can Romney surpass McCain in Ohio and Texas in March? The rapidly fading Huck would simply disappear, as he is doing in many places where the obvious has already registered: A vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain. A vote for McCain is a vote AGAINST the traditional family and traditional family values.
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POPS A Vote For The Huckster Is A Vote For MexiCain Huckabee’s obstinate obsession with staying in a race for a nomination that he cannot win could hand the nomination to someone that would damage our party beyond repair. Huckabee willing to hand the nomination to an individual who has made a career out of thumbing his nose at the Republican Party. As an economic Conservative I feel more comfortable voting for someone who believes that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent. MexiCain opposed the Bush tax cuts but now says they ought to be made permanent. Makes you wonder how genuine that desire is. Mike Huckabee says now he’s on board with The Fair Tax, but his record shows a tendency to raise taxes. Especially in the quest to institute a nanny state. Huckster would use the tax system to enforce nanny state policies against smokers, drinkers, and transfats. Do you want the President and the federal government tell you that you can’t eat that burger, smoke that cigarette, or have that drink? I don’t and I’m not even a smoker
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POPS Sore Winner "I don't change my positions depending on what year it is or what office I'm seeking" In the California debate, he was forced to admit that he no longer supports the immigration legislation he himself proposed last year. He was asked, would you vote for the bill if it came to the floor? "No, I would not, because we know what the situation is today. The people want the border secured first." Oh. So McCain has changed his position? While we're on the subject of political flexibility, let's recall that McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts (thought they were too nice to the rich) but now wishes to make them permanent. It's no crime to change one's views and it would certainly be welcome if McCain were to reexamine a few more of his positions; for example, on detainee interrogations, drug reimportation from Canada or Supreme Court picks. He could stand a little refresher course on Economics 101, particularly about where the wealth of this nation comes from. (Hint: Not from senators.
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POPS Battle For The Super-Tuesday States I’m sure someone out there will say that Mitt Romney led Bain for profit, not patriotism. But I don’t see why the two have to be mutually exclusive. Neither did Ronald Reagan, for that matter. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney plans to run a “significant” level of television ads in California and other states that vote Tuesday in essentially a national primary, aides said Thursday, signaling a willingness to aggressively try to derail Republican front-runner John McCain. h/t john dickerson slate.com h/t bryan hotair.com
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POPSHow The Media Pick The Candidates:::accuracyinmedia.org While few people, relatively speaking, actually watch the debates on the cable channels, the exchanges which are manufactured by the nature of the questions that are addressed to certain candidates get picked up by many other media outlets, leading to a public perception that the "frontrunners" being quoted are the only "serious" ones left in the race When Fox excluded him from its debate, a website was created to protest the exclusion and one Paul supporter responded, "Bye, Bye Fox. WE are the media now." I can testify to some truth in that statement, having been a guest on an Internet radio show hosted by a Ron Paul supporter named Indy, who lives in Japan, and which took calls from around the world. I was invited on to talk about media bias against the candidate. There are several other Internet radio shows exclusively devoted to his candidacy.
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POPSFormer House Speaker Hastert:::McCain 'Allied With Democrats' The former House speaker has not had a lot of good to say about McCain in recent years. He contended that on agenda items under the Republican-controlled Congress, “it just seems like everything we did, John was someplace else.” “It was McCain-Kennedy, it was McCain-Lieberman, it was McCain-Feingold on campaign finance reform,” Hastert said, noting Democratic co-sponsors. “He was against us on tax cuts and his form of immigration reform was to open the gates and let everybody in.” “He is a moderate,” the former speaker said. “In almost everything he’s done, he’s done (things) against what mainstream Republicans thought and he’s allied with Democrats. He was always the undependable vote in the Senate.” McCain's campaign thinks they can smooth things over. "We look forward to the Speaker's support in the general election," said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain.
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POPSRomney Fed Up, Not Giving In; McCain Not Winning GOP Base Romney's not going to buy any television for the February 5th super-duper primaries," and the signal there was, "Well, I guess Romney is throwing in the towel." Then, mere moments ago, I receive the following story: "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney plans to run a 'significant' level of television ads in California and other states that vote Tuesday in essentially a national primary, aides said Thursday, signaling a willingness to aggressively try to derail Republican front-runner John McCain."
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POPSThis Is Quite A Record For A "Straight Talker" Super Tuesday may be the voters’ last chance to bring the so-called “straight talk express” to a screeching halt. It should be called the “sell-out express” because McCain has sold out not only with amnesty for illegal aliens but also sold out the First Amendment with the McCain-Feingold “campaign finance reform” bill that was supposed to take big money out of political campaigns, but blatantly has not. McCain also sold out on judicial nominations by making his own side deal with the Democrats,undercutting Republican attempts to stop Democrats from filibustering judicial nominees instead of voting them up or down. Let’s talk sense. Benedict Arnold was a war hero but that did not exempt him from condemnation for his later betrayal. Being a war hero is not a lifetime get-out-of-jail-free card. And becoming president of the United States is not a matter of rewarding an individual for past services.
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POPSSenator McCain by Mark Steyn January 31, 2008 Primary triumph doesn't seem to be doing anything to mitigate the small and graceless side of McCain. On the other hand, John Hinderaker might be on to something here: "Businessmen, in my experience, are generally more idealistic than politicians. Businessmen really do make deals with a handshake. No one would dream of doing that with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi or the Clintons. Turning a businessman loose in the political world is basically a mismatch. That's the sense I get of McCain's reaction to having Romney as his last serious rival. He can't believe his good fortune; Romney is an amateur. McCain can poke him in the eye, knee him in the groin, and the rule-following businessman has no idea how to respond" powerline.com Maybe. But, just because McCain can poke Mitt in the eye is no indication he'll be as effective with Putin, a remarkable number of whose enemies wind up splattered on the sidewalk outside their apartment house after opting for....... http://corner.nationa
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POPS McCain, Like Janus, The Two-Faced Roman God "Wouldn't it be great if you get a chance to name somebody like Roberts and Alito?" one lawyer commented. McCain replied, "Well, certainly Roberts." Jaws were described as dropping. My sources cannot remember exactly what McCain said next, but their recollection is that he described Alito as too conservative. Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist is worried about a prominent journalist informing him that McCain a few years ago said to him, off the record, that as president he would have to raise taxes. McCain more recently has told me, on the record, he never would support a tax increase and, consequently, favors making permanent the Bush tax cuts. As Senate Indian Affairs Committee chairman, McCain in 2005 subpoenaed records of Norquist's dealings with Republican Jack Abramoff. Norquist said McCain held a grudge against him for campaigning against the senator's 2000 presidential bid. Norquist told me he has no personal animus and only wants assurance that McCain opposes higher taxes
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POPSDishonest?....or.....Stupid? Take a good hard look at the antics of John McCain and don't let the "hero" card get in your way. I ask America: Why do we put as frontrunners two smug, manipulating, LYING, backstabbers like Hillary Clinton and John McCain? Ask yourself! Ask your friends! Ask your family! Why do we flock to these people. Is it a reflection of our own collective self-imagery? Then let's admit we ourselves may be scoundrels at times ~~ AND LOOK FOR SOMETHING BETTER IN OUR LEADERS!
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POPSCalculated "straight-talk" LIAR I agree with the author of this post ~ WORD FOR WORD. How could one miss this? And having seen it, what then does it say about one who saw it, yet supports McCain still? It says that that person supports a liar, a childish smirking, unjustifiably self-important emotional adolescent who has to LIE to get over on others.
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POPS GOP Primary Scorecard --- Florida Edition With Super Tuesday looming and with the field having winnowed to two sharply contrasting candidates (simply put, the conservative and the moderate), anyone who has yet to voice their preference and wants to have an impact will need to act fast. One has to suspect Mitt will be personally burning up the phone lines over the next day or two. Who do you reckon will be the biggest fish reeled in on each side (other than Rudy) between now and February 5th? And will Huckabee have the good grace to sashay on out of the race or will he relish his new role as possible spoiler to Mitt? Posted by Flip on January 29, 2008 | Permalink Was Florida A Closed Primary Or Not? ? http://www.suitablyflip.com/suitably_flip/2008/01/was-florida-a-c.html
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POPS McCain-Lieberman Bill And The Economic Burden On US Economy Romney called McCain to offer his congratulations and told his supporters to hang on for an ongoing fight. “You guys are my heroes. You took this campaign from nowhere to the very top tier. You worked your hearts out, and you made me a contender. And for that, Ann and I and our family will be forever grateful. Thank you so very much,” the former Massachusetts governor said with his wife by his side. “I’m sure that you are excited here this evening, but a little disappointed, as well,” he said before launching into a speech that continued his anti-Washington theme and touted his economic credentials “Hard-working, innovative, risk-taking, family-oriented, God- fearing, freedom-loving American people have always been the source of America’s greatness, and they always will be. And so the right course for America isn’t to strengthen our government, but to strengthen our people. And to do that, we’re going to have to change Washington, and change will begin with us,” Romney said.
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POPS New Web And Radio Ads By The Arizona Senator Lack Context The Commonwealth Connector, an independent entity that was established to implement the state health plan, estimates that "over half" of those who were uninsured before the state plan was launched have gained coverage. That works out to be about 200,000 people, since the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance Policy said that 395,000 were uninsured before the plan was put into place. (A more concrete estimate from that state agency should be released in late summer.) So while McCain is entitled to his opinion when he says the Romney plan is "not very good," we suspect a lot of newly covered residents disagree.
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POPS The 11th Commandment “Though Shalt Not Attack Fellow Republicans.” The Romney camp frames the memo as a top-10 list of McCain’s “attacks” on Republicans. It could also be called “10 instances over the last eight years when McCain got angry or lost his cool.” Oh, and the missive pays special attention to McCain’s use of four-letter words that are not H-E-double-hockey-sticks. Update: On Thursday afternoon, Romney said, “One thing I’m also gonna point out is, particularly in a Republican campaign, I’m not going to talk about the character of the people I’m running against.” He also cited Ronald Reagan’s so-called 11th commandment, something along the lines of, “though shalt not attack fellow Republicans.”
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POPS McCain's Dishonest Attacks And Desperate Tactics In Florida Romney has said that he agrees with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, that U.S. troops could move to more of an oversight role in 2008. Romney aides labeled McCain's charge "stunningly false," while McCain aides portrayed his Iraq comments as part of a broader effort in the coming days to question Romney's leadership, foreign policy experience and judgment. McCain also sought to rebut Romney's criticisms in an unusual fashion: he dispatched high-profile surrogates to talk with the press corps traveling with the former governor. Among them: former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift. She boarded the Romney press bus to repeat similar criticisms to reporters.
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POPS Survive '08 DEBATES Sign up for polls and updates With over 10,600 votes cast, round four has ended. This was Survive '08's largest round of voting to date! Recap Results are up! ROUND FIVE is underway and the poll has been reset with the remaining Presidential candidates.
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POPS"Straight Talk Express" Took A Wrong Turn With This Mailer ANALYSIS FROM FACT CHECK ON MCCAIN MAILER What makes the McCain mailer misleading is that McCain himself went way beyond quietly refusing to endorse the 2003 tax cut plan. He was one of only three Senate Republicans to vote against it. The day after Bush proposed the cuts he criticized them as too generous to the rich. "It is middle-income Americans that have kept our economy afloat by buying houses and automobiles," McCain said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "I believe that they deserve the majority of the break, not the higher-income level of Americans." By attacking Romney for not supporting the 2003 cuts, McCain invites readers to believe that he himself must have supported them, which isn't true. Furthermore, McCain also voted against Bush's 2001 tax cuts, before Romney took office as governor.
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POPSJohn McCain Mailer Has Mitt Romney Campaign Crying Foul Meanwhile, the McCain campaign planned to file a complaint with the office of State Attorney General Henry McMaster -- one of McCain’s co-chairs in South Carolina -- about a Colorado-based group that is using an automated telephone polling system, Boling said. The group, Common Sense Issues, Inc., is a 501c4 nonprofit that focuses on conservative issues and has endorsed Mike Huckabee for president. Patrick Davis, the group’s executive director, said the group is independent and not controlled by the Huckabee campaign. McMaster, one of four South Carolina officials on McCain’s "Truth Squad," said he didn’t think it would be a conflict of interest if the campaign filed a complaint with his office. He said other campaigns could be affected by the calls as well and a complainant could go to a local solicitor with their complaint, not just his office. Santorum:McCain Presidency VeryDangerous http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Santorum:_McCain_Presiden/2008/01/14/64277.html
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POPS Primary and Caucus System Runs Amok The system has been made worse every four years since the early ’70s when primaries began to proliferate and party leaders in other states began plotting to minimize the early influence of Iowa and New Hampshire or actually supplant them by either moving their contests to try to get ahead of them or by urging the creation of “super” and regional primaries that might prove more “representative” than these states. None of these machinations have come close to working. Thus, the desire of many to limit the importance of the early states has, in fact, had the opposite effect. Giuliani's strategy called for the former New York City mayor to essentially ignore the voters of Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina (to say nothing of Wyoming) and concentrate his forces in Florida and the early mega-primary to follow. Florida, where he had a more than 20 point lead just a couple of months ago, would provide a “fire wall” that would stop Romney, McCain or whoever else.............
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POPS FOUR PINOCCHIOS AND THE GEPPETTO CHECK MARK The cut-and-paste job Huckabee needed to come up with an immigration plan in a hurry last month. He was beginning his remarkable ascent in opinion polls, but was under attack from GOP rivals for a "liberal" position on immigration while governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. When the campaign announced the governor's nine-point immigration plan on Dec. 6, it noted that it was "partially modeled" on Krikorian's proposal three years earlier. But Huckabee took credit for the plan in the Republican debate on Thursday night, and Mitt Romney's campaign is crying foul. A point-by-point comparison of the two plans supports the Romney critique. Huckabee's is virtually identical to Krikorian's, with the exception of two points: Build the Fence and Establish an Economic Border. Huckabee says that his proposal for a flat-rate sales tax, known as the "fair tax," would create an "economic disincentive" for illegal immigration, by forcing undocumented workers to pay taxes.
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POPSHuckabee's "Shiite Republicans" A Standard Populist Slur? My question for you evangelicals is this: If you're looking for a real conservative, why are you supporting Huckabee? He's completely discredited himself. What about Fred Thompson, if you're looking for a real conservative? Huckabee is constantly engaging in class warfare against the producers. This "laid-off" line, it's an attack on Romney, but it's an attack on producers. It's an attack on employers. It's pure populism. He does oppose school choice! You don't get the NEA endorsement in New Hampshire by supporting school choice. I think I know what is happening here, Mr. Snerdley, who is the official screener of calls here today. I think that the Huckabee campaign has finally figured it out. I think that we've got behind-the-scenes advisors in some cases calling in here, and advisors are having some of their people call in here. http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2008/01/huckabees-shiit.html
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