Political State Report: State News Straight Up

John McCain has an interesting choice to make as to who should be his vice presidential running mate. In the most basic of terms the considerations are wide. It’s not even clear the so-called “Maverick” would pick a Republican, though it would be a pretty craven Democrat who would accept his request. What’s that, Joe Lieberman?

A woman? Someone in a wheelchair? A general?

How about Colin Powell? Woah, that one is worth a long, considering pause isn’t it?

Regionally does it matter? Likely not another southwest presence but what about Arnold Schwarzenegger to help drag California to his side? I think it is technically constitutionally legal for a naturalized American to be vice president. National media would shine the biggest spotlight on this campaign.

Laura Ingraham? McCain likes the blondes.

Would he want to strengthen his hawkish (to put it mildly) positions or push someone who would balance where he is perceived as weak.

Does he accept that he is not conservative enough and that being more conservative would actually help with the general electorate?

Would he bring Jonah Goldberg aboard so the right-leaning blogosphere would finally come aboard?

Michael Bloomberg is a serious consideration. What say you?

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (2)

With his own confetti strewn picture atop his Web site, Independent candidate Ralph Nader wants people to not only listen to his views but to vote for him and send him money to become the 44th President of America.

Currently there sure do seem to be a lot of potential defectors from the Democratic Party if their preferred candidate doesn’t get the nomination. From the right, it’s hard to think Nader’s anti-corporate stance - not a bad thing - will draw many Republican defectors unhappy with John McCain. After all, they don’t like him because of McCain-Feingold’s attempted stripping of money power from corporations. McCain isn’t right enough.

Nader lays down 12 major issues he says are “off the table” of the other candidates. They are:

• Adopt single payer national health insurance

• Cut the huge, bloated, wasteful military budget

• No to nuclear power, solar energy first

• Aggressive crackdown on corporate crime and corporate welfare

• Open up the Presidential debates

• Adopt a carbon pollution tax

• Reverse U.S. policy in the Middle East

• Impeach Bush/Cheney

• Repeal the Taft-Hartley anti-union law

• Adopt a Wall Street securities speculation tax

• Put an end to ballot access obstructionism

• Work to end corporate personhood

Here Nader makes the pitch why he’s a better choice than McCain or Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton:

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (3)

After a sweep of the states tonight, In what was a fairly substantial - and conservative speech - John McCain accepts the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential race. This is a big deal for McCain who has been trying for so long.

Because he wrapped up the campaign, in all but math weeks ago, this speech has been prepared for a while.

In Austin, Texas, speech below:

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (0)

With less than 10 percent of precincts reporting, Barack Obama’s lead is strong enough that the race has been called in his favor. First he wins in the heartland, then he wins in the South.

So, to answer the question below, no it’s not going to be deja vu for Clinton, who was polling far behind and stayed there. The high black turnout - expected at about 50 percent of Democratic primary voters - seems to have pulled their favorite candidate to the top.

Native son John Edwards trails in third by a significant margin, but will finish around 20 percent. That’s up from Nevada’s 4 percent showing, though that won’t give his supporters solace. Edwards would have like to place higher, no doubt, but he’s in it to Feb. 5.

So while the Obama camp - and the punditry class - will spin this as momentum going into Florida and SDT (Super-Duper Tuesday”) it really is no such thing. Just as it wasn’t when Hillary took New Hampshire and then Nevada (with the “non-vote” of Michigan in the middle).

Another “um” word is more appropriate - pendulum.

The stakes really are high. Vote your conscience and vote on the issues, not a bunch of political campaign garbage which is rarely a reflection of either the person or the administration they’ll run. Not to do so is to be duped, and don’t most people get a little too much of feeling like or being treated as a dupe on lesser things. This is your vote - go with your beliefs about who will best run the country and who has the better plan.

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (0)

The dynamic of the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina is much different than the one in New Hampshire.

It’s not just because it comes later, when the race has gelled around three top runners - some would say two - but because of the higher black population and John Edwards’ popularity there

Whether it’s Obama’s legitimacy or Clinton’s vulnerability or Edwards durability as a candidate on the line, now is a critical time in the race where people who vote on Feb. 5 will want to back the winner, and they will be paying attention.

Barack Obama has a 13-point lead over Hillary Clinton at about 38 percent to her 25. But then he had a substantial lead going into New Hampshire’s primary day, as well. Edwards is placing a close third at 21 percent, and if he wins it will change that “who will be the winner” dynamic enough to cause a great deal of unpredictability going into Super-Duper Tuesday.

That day will, even if the losing candidates don’t drop out en masse, will mark the first step to the final stages of the parties primary season.

We’ve lost this campaign season’s Lennie and George, with Fred Thompson and Dennis Kucinich gone. Fred Thompson, who started slow and amazingly got slower, lost out to a more established character, John McCain. Kucinich, honest as the day is long, may have hoped for a brief few days that something wild in America would have changed but he knew he was not in it to win it, but to raise issues. He dropped out to protect his butt - and his Congressional seat - in Ohio where four Democratic challengers want him gone. That election is March. 4.

Maybe Thompson will now return to Law & Order where his Unity 08 proponent Sam Waterson has taken his fictional place as lead District Attorney.

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (0)

With a famously negative South Carolina campaign in 2000 that sank a youthful John McCain’s presidential chances after a strong New Hampshire showing, history did not repeat itself today.

Though it was called early, McCain won the state with 33 percent of the vote, and the bigotry faction of voters seems to have crashed on Mormon Mitt who did not place in the medals he’s touted in victory / defeat speeches. Mitt Romney earned 15 percent of the love from GOP voters, behind the “sleeping giant?” Fred Thompson who received 16 percent. Huckabee was second with 30 percent.

Ron Paul, 4 percent, is still in the race at this point because his campaign has a lot of money and no other good way to spend it; he’s unlikely to throw it to any of the other candidates. Paul may get more vocal and more extreme - neither necessarily a bad thing - before all is said and done. I truly believe at this point, if he realizes he can’t win - and he can’t - he’d like to see a Democrat in the White House, instead.

Rudy “2 percent in SC” Giuliani appears to still be in the race because his ego demands he win something, anything before he prat falls out to disappear from the national spotlight for a few welcome years. His campaign strategy to save the big push for Feb. 5’s big primary day has ignored the psychological edge that one in the W column has on subsequent elections. It has failed.

To put it another way, he has the same number of delegates as Duncan Hunter. 1.

(23:27, Clarification: McCain was the victim of the negative campaign that asked if voters knew that McCain had fathered a black child would it influence their vote)

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (3)

A month from now, on January 3 Iowa is the first occasion voters get to mark their preference for the next leader of the United States. Five months later on June 3, Montana, South Dakota, New Mexico (for Republicans close out the hunting season.

That’s first date is a month away, and that date,unfortunately marks the gunshot start of a race to the bottom of the rhetorical barrel.

Who can possibly disagree?

It would be nice if there was more hope for an intelligent discussion about the future of the country. Instead, it’s not only going to be horrible it’s going to be embarassing to all thinking people in the country. The usual suspects will enjoy all kinds of gotcha and on the other side we’ll all feel a little stupider.

But, the winner and his or her supporters will feel great. Can we the people really have hope that this country’s politicians solve anything rather than just tread water to do the bare minimum of care and due dilegence?

The National Association of Secretaries of State actually has a decent plan to hold four regional primary election days in the first weeks of March, April May & June.

Maybe that will come to pass in 2009. Meanwhile, Feb. 5 is when the fit hits the shan as 23 states hold primaries, 20 for both parties. Iowa and Kansas, this year, are holding caucuses. Hawaii Republicans are choosing delegates during the first week of February.

Several other, local and congressional primary elections will take place the same days. More on that at PolState.com later.

JANUARY - 13 primary elections in 7 states:

Jan. 3 Iowa (caucus) - R & D
Jan. 5 Wyoming - R only
Jan. 8 New Hamshire - R & D
Jan. 15 Michigan - R & D
Jan. 19 Nevada - R & D
Jan. 19 South Carolina - R only
Jan. 26 South Carolina - D only
Jan. 29 Florida - R & D

FEBRUARY - 57 primary elections in 30 states:

Feb. 1: Maine - R only
Feb. 5: Alabama - R & D
Feb. 5: Alaska - R & D
Feb. 5: Arizona - R & D
Feb. 5: Arkansas - R & D
Feb. 5: California - R & D
Feb. 5: Colorado - R & D
Feb. 5: Connecticut - R & D
Feb. 5: Delaware - R & D
Feb. 5: Georgia - R & D
Feb. 5: Idaho - D only
Feb. 5: Illinois - R & D
Feb. 5: Kansas - D only
Feb. 5: Massachusetts - R & D
Feb. 5: Minnesota - R & D
Feb. 5: Missouri - R & D
Feb. 5: New Jersey - R & D
Feb. 5: New Mexico - D only
Feb. 5: New York - R & D
Feb. 5: North Dakota - R & D
Feb. 5: Oklahoma - R & D
Feb. 5: Tennessee - R & D
Feb. 5: Utah - R & D
Feb. 9: Kansas - R only
Feb. 9: Louisiana - R & D
Feb. 10: Maine - D only
Feb. 12: D.C. - R & D
Feb. 12: Maryland - R & D
Feb. 12: Virginia - R & D
Feb. 19: Hawaii - D only
Feb. 19: Washington - R & D
Feb. 19: Wisconsin - R & D

- and the rest who were sane enough not to care because it’s a primary and they’ll likely get the candidates who have a chance of winning, anyway.

MARCH - 11 primary elections in 6 states:

Mar. 4: Ohio - R & D
Mar. 4: Rhode Island - R & D
Mar. 4: Texas - R & D
Mar. 4: Vermont - R & D
Mar. 8: Wyoming - D only
Mar. 11: Mississippi - R & D

APRIL - 2 primary elections in 1 states:

Apr. 22: Pennsylvania - R & D

MAY - 13 primary elections in 7 states:

May 6: Indiana - R & D
May 6: North Carolina - R & D
May 13: Nebraska - R & D
May 13: West Virginia - R & D
May 20: Kentucky - R & D
May 20: Oregon - R & D
May 27: Idaho - R only

JUNE - 5 primary elections in 3 states:

Jun. 3: Montana - R & D
Jun. 3: South Dakota - R & D
Jun. 3: New Mexico - R only

New Mexico’s Republican primary has the distinction of being the last primary poll to close for the season.

Then when all that’s over, the uselessness of the conventions where scripts are read and very poor theater is played out on garish stages:

Democratic Party, Aug 25-28 in Denver
Republican Party, Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul

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BY: Temple Stark | Comments and Links (3)