Looking at several polls recently it appears the generic congressional ballot which had been in favor of the democrats for all of 07 and most of 08 has tightened. Polls for most of 08 had the Democrats up double digits poised to increase their margains in the House and Senate. Their was even talk of the Democrats having a filibuster proof majority, you need 60 votes to end a filibuster. People were talking about 58 or 59 seats for the dems, throw in liberal Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins both from Maine and Gordon Smith from Oregon and you’d have all the votes you’d needed.

However, recent polls have seen Republicans surging in the Generic Congressional vote. A USA Today/Gallup poll even has it as a 50-45 edge for Republicans. Every other poll still has the Democrats up around 5 points. The RCP average has it Democrats by 4.2%. An average of all polls taken in July gave Democrats a 12 point advantage on the generic ballot question. What is causing this turn in the Polls? I believe it is the McCain pick of Palin which has united Conservatives and bought many of them who had left back to the Republican Party.

Before the Pick of Palin Obama had a comfortable lead on McCain and many Republicans were thinking of not voting at all. Obama had around an eight point lead on McCain before the convention. Of the last twenty-four polls taken before the RNC McCain led in four and was tied in two others. Obama led in eighteen and was up by at least six points in five of the last six polls taken before the Start of the RNC. However in eleven polls taken since the end of the RNC Obama has led in just two and was tied in one. McCain now holds a 2.1% lead in the Real Clear Politics average. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve researched alot of candidates for VP and I find that there are two that stand out to me. One is Eric Cantor, he has everything a Conservative could want in a VP candidate he’s a social, fiscal and a forgien policy conservative. He has a tragic story about his cousin being murdered by terrorist. (I hate to make that a positive but we are in a war with these people.) He’s a strong supporter of Israel. He’s an amazing fundraiser and he’s the only Jewish Republican in Congress. However even with all these amazing qualifications he lacks one thing, he’s not a woman. I believe to win this election we will have to steal some of those Hillary Clinton voters away from Barack Obama while at the same time holding true to our conservative principles. I know of only one person that has all those credentials and can attract women to the ticket, Sarah Palin.

John McCain should name Sarah Palin has his VP. Palin is like McCain’s twin when it comes to fighting corruption. She doesn’t care where it is she’s going to find it and make whoever is responsible pay. She also helps in the energy debate, she is for drilling offshore, and for drilling in ANWR. She brings in all three segments of the Republican Party and she’s a Christian so she may very well spark the evangelicals to rally to McCain’s side. (Something McCain has not acheived on his own.) We need all three branches of the Republican Party and a few Democrats to win this election. Palin could bring some Democratic women into the fold. I believe that naming Palin as VP will give us the best chance to win in November. Go to New Conservative for more from this author.

Cantor has been serving has a Congressmen from VA since 2001. He is Currently the Chief Deputy Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the only Jewish member of the House of Representatives. Before that he had served in the VA state house for almost a decade. The Congressman has received well over 60% of the vote in every election since 2000. Including a victory over Ben Jones, also known as Cooter from the Dukes of Hazard.

“Cantor seems to have a knack for fundraising. He was asked to start a PAC to help Republicans in Close contest.” His office set an initial goal of $300,000 for that first year and eclipsed it, said Cantor’s chief of staff, Rob Collins. Then he set the ambitious goal of $1 million for the second year and was able to eclipse that by $43,000. In 2004, during just his second year in leadership, Cantor raised more than $1 million for his Every Republican Is Crucial PAC (ERICPAC), and he is off to an early start so far this cycle. By the end of May, he had given $279,027 to federal candidates, $127,000 more than any other member of the Republican leadership, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks campaign contributions,” O’Connor wrote. Read the rest of this entry »

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota is a much mentioned VP candidate. He is the past Chairman of the National Governors Association. Pawlenty has been supporting McCain since the start of the primary season and is one of his biggest backers. The major question that swirls around a possible Pawlenty pick is can he deliver Minnesota to McCain?

Pawlenty was first elected governor in 2002 and was reelected in 2006 with 46.7% of the vote. (the independent candidate got 6.4% of the vote) Republicans lost both the State House and Senate in the 2006 election. Pawlenty was the only Republican Constitutional officer in Minnesota to survive that election. Pawlenty took office with a 4.5 billion dollar deficit and started his second term with a surplus. However the bridge collapse in Minnesota could be a factor that keeps Pawlenty from being the VP on McCain’s ticket.

Pawlenty is undoubtly a fiscal conservative, he balanced Minnesota’s budget while cutting taxes, enacted a property tax cap, and elimated the marriage penalty. He also has a great record on education has Minnesota is first in ACT scores, first in percentage of residents with a high school diploma, and first in precentage of residents with a bachelors degree. This leads to a business environment that has the State first in Fortune 500 companies per capita. Minnesota is also first in quality of life and home ownership.

Back to my first question can Pawlenty deliver Minnesota? In his last election he garnered 46.7% of the vote. This was after winning his first election with even a smaller percentage 44.3. As best as I can tell Pawlenty tends to hold an approval rating between 50-55%. That would probably get him reelected, but I don’t think it’s high enough for McCain to steal that state from the Blue Column. Also the fact he never really came close to 50% in either election doesn’t bode well for McCain either. I don’t think Pawlenty can deliver Minnesota and outside of that he doesn’t have a great story line and wouldn’t generate any buzz for the campaign. On the other hand no one would be upset with this pick either. If McCain wants to play it safe this would be his best choice. If he’s going for a homerun he’s going to need to look to someone else.

As we go into the second of four possible VP choices I have chosen to highlight Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Elected in 2006 Sarah Palin is the first woman, and the youngest person at 44 years of age, to hold the office of governor in Alaska. Nicknamed “Sarah Barracuda” while she was leading her High School basketball team to the State title. She has gone after corrupt politicans on both sides, supports drilling in ANWR and drilling off-shore, is a strong fiscal conservative, and a devout Christian. She currently has around a 90% approval rating. Let’s start with looking at how she has attacked corrpution in her state.

Governor Palin has passed ethics reforms in her state and is ethical to the point where it almost cost her a political career. She is refered to as, “A crusading corruption buster”. She has gone after corrupt Republicans as well as Democrats in Alaska. “The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah,” says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called “Voice of the Times,” which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct.” (Hard to sell papers critizing someone with a 90% approval rating.) It is now a crime in Alaska for public servants not to report bribery that they know about. Read the rest of this entry »

This is just my opinion and it goes directly against an article I wrote on my blog June 7th entitled Why McCain Needs Huckabee. Where I made an empassioned plea for McCain to take Huckabee as his VP. However during a conversation with some Romney supporters yesterday I came to the conclusion that McCain would be better off not picking either one as VP. The reason for this is simple If he Picks Huckabee, Romney supporters will be furious and vice versa.

I think were down to Three choices Jindal, Palin and Pawlenty. Let’s go over the Pros and Cons of each starting with Jindal. However a friend of mine has suggested Rob Portman so I will included him here as well. This will be a series starting today with Bobby Jindal Read the rest of this entry »