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The economy is collapsing and the GOP is stuck with a candidate who doesn't know jack about economics. But what if Mitt Romney had won that hard-fought Florida primary and grabbed the nomination? Romney's whole business career was about turning around distressed companies. Plus, he's far less identified with George W. Bush than is McCain. And unlike McCain he might not have had to give up on Michigan, where his father was governor. (What state pray tell is McCain holding that Mitt couldn't?) I know there are plenty of strikes against the guy. But it's an interesting counterfactual to consider--one...

McCaskill's edge I mentioned a few days ago that Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill's mild affect masks a bit of a killer, and that she's perhaps the Obama campaign's deftest surrogate on the attack. But I was still kind of amused by her brief interaction with Mitt Romney in the press file just now. McCaskill was stepping out of her chair at the end of an MSNBC interview, and Romney was up next. She and a staffer unplugged her various wires, and she handed Romney the earpiece the guests use to hear the host. "I spit on this before I put...

The rush to tie up drilling rights in Marcellus shale is ramping up just west of the Interstate 81 corridor, as companies compete to sign leases. The black sedimentary rock runs from western New York south into West Virginia. It has been promoted as one of the most promising natural gas sources in the United States. Piping the gas through the hills and mountains of Appalachia, however, will not be easy. New technologies that include horizontal drilling and pumping in water to fracture the rock, have been found to release more gas and make recoveries in shale more economical. Rising...

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $25bn package of low-cost loans to help hard-pressed carmakers and their suppliers finance plant modernisation at a time of restricted access to public capital ­markets. The automotive loans are separate from the proposed $700bn bail-out for the banking sector, which is still being debated in Congress. The House approved the measure 370-58, setting the stage for Senate approval within days.

NEW YORK (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been meeting with a panel of business executives to discuss the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout for U.S. financial markets. --snip-- McCain renewed his insistence that the bailout deal have greater transparency, oversight and CEO accountability to make it acceptable for voters. Joining McCain for the meeting Wednesday in New York is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, his one-time rival for the GOP nomination.

After a series of government interventions in the private markets, one seemingly more astonishing than the next, lawmakers found themselves confronted on Wednesday with the question of when and where to draw the line on future aid. But with billions of dollars in financial backing already authorized for Wall Street, and with Election Day fast approaching, congressional leaders seemed uninterested in denying help to large employers of blue-collar Americans. Even as lawmakers in both parties unleashed a barrage of questions about the ......

Battered by weak sales, declining market share and miserable credit ratings, Detroit's Big Three automakers are now turning to the US government for help. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC will be launching a campaign in the coming days to secure at least 25 billion dollars in federal loans to help get past the current economic malaise. "This isn't a bail out," said Greg Martin, Washington spokesman for GM, the largest US automaker which has been awash in speculation for months that it is running short of cash. "These are direct loans that we have to pay...

What else is there to do on Thursdays besides FReep and listen to TSN?! C'mon, eat, drink, breathe SAVAGE?Savage’s websiteLOTS of links to listen to the Savage radio show here!!!

Less than a year ago, Rudy Giuliani was leading in national polls for the Republican presidential nomination, but last night, he was making the case for the man who was in a distant third place at the time -- John McCain. When we last saw Giuliani on the national scene, his supposed "firewall" in Florida had collapsed, forcing him to abandon his once promising run for the White House. But tonight, he brought the house down with a prosecutorial dissection of Barack Obama's unreadiness to be president by contrasting his lack of record with the experience of McCain. Liberated from...

Nice speech with most memorable line, in my opinion, the observation that nobody last week in Denver even mentioned the threat of radical islam.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney says he will use his address to the Republican National Convention to outline differences between the visions of John McCain and Barack Obama. The former GOP presidential contender is scheduled to speak at 9:30 tonight — before the television networks will be carrying the convention live. Romney had a full day planned before his speech. Michigan delegates gave their native son a warm greeting before he addressed them at breakfast in Minneapolis.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Mitt Romney, responding to reporters' questions about sex education policy in the aftermath of the news that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is pregnant, told reporters he had always thought abstinence should be part of a comprehensive sex education curriculum. "I would not propose that people don't get any sex education but abstinence," he said. But in 2006, as then-Governor Romney prepared to enter the Republican presidential primary, he announced with great fanfare that he would redirect money from a federal abstinence education grant -- money that had the state had been using to promote abstinence within comprehensive...

Romney also said if McCain is elected, he has absolutely no interest in a cabinet post. His father George, who lost the 1968 Republican nomination to Richard Nixon, ended up as Nixon's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. "I actually saw my dad serve as a cabinet secretary," Romney said. "One thing I know is, that's not a job I'd want. It's not a job I'd take." "My dad found that he was being ordered around by the White House and a bureaucracy inside his own department that was hard to move. It's not for me."

Here is video of the sights and sounds of the McCain - Palin rally in the St. Louis, Missouri area today. They were joined at the rally by both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. The rally drew a crowd estimated at between 15,000-20,000 people. . . .(video at link)

WASHINGTON — In the end, the choice of his running mate said more about Senator John McCain and his image of himself than it did about Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska whose selection has shaken up the presidential race. For weeks, advisers close to the campaign said, Mr. McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat turned independent. But by the end of last weekend, the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that Mr. McCain would fill out the Republican ticket with Mr. Lieberman, a...

Romney to meet with Utah GOP delegates By Lisa Riley Roche Deseret News Published: Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008 12:45 a.m. MDT 0 comments RELATED CONTENT | E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - McCain's choice alters campaign Utah delegates praise Palin ST. PAUL, Minn. — Mitt Romney may not be on the GOP ticket, but Utah delegates to the Republican National Convention will no doubt give him a hero's welcome when he visits them at their Monday morning breakfast meeting. "Next to John McCain and Sarah Palin, right now there is not a hotter name at this convention than Mitt...

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney - considered a leading contender for John McCain’s running mate - praised the Arizona senator’s surprise pick today, saying Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s story is “inspiring.” “Governor Palin’s story is one that all Americans will find inspiring,” Romney said in a statement issued earlier today. “She’s a Washington outsider with a commitment to the conservative principles that will make our nation stronger. I look forward to campaigning for Senator McCain, Governor Palin and Republicans all across the country,” Romney said.

<p>Elizabeth Holmes reports from Dayton, Ohio on the presidential race. Who will be in Dayton Ohio with John McCain when he announces his running mate later today?</p>

Carl Cameron: romneys out

Today is the day, 11 a.m. Eastern..who will it be?

So -- two senior McCain campaign officials confirm that John McCain will appear with his vice presidential pick in Dayton, Ohio tomorrow at noon ET. And Gov. Mitt Romney expects to be in Dayton, Ohio tomorrow, having been asked there by the McCain campaign, a reliable source close to Romney says. (Another source says Romney will be in Boston.) Gov. Tim Pawlenty is currently at the governors' mansion in Minneapolis. There is no guidance about his schedule.

Heads it’s Romney, tails it’s Pawlenty . . . Heads Pawlenty, tails Romney. Typing away while waiting for the news about John McCain’s pick for a running mate to leak. If it’s Mitt, it’s because he’s popular with his fellow Mormons, and may help keep those wavering red Western states with big LDS populations like Nevada and Colorado in the Republican column. If it’s Mitt, it’s because he can credibly claim ties to at least four states - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Michigan and Utah, and also maybe California, where he just bought a spread in La Jolla. If it’s not...

Greta Van Sustern Just Said That Romney will be in Dayton tomorrow morning!

Rumors are circulating that GOP presumptive presidential candidate Senator John McCain plans to select Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as his vice presidential running mate. Pawlenty certainly talks a good shtick when it comes to free markets, low taxes, and limited government, but his views on climate change and energy policy are downright frightening. "We should not spend time on voices that say [climate change] is not real," Pawlenty said even as new evidence surfaces almost daily that undermines the alarmist consensus. "We should have listened to President Carter" about energy policy, Pawlenty said. President Jimmy Carter, readers may recall, gave...

I'm confident enough to put this up now, but willing to be wrong. Right now though, every sign, signal, and background chatter indicates John McCain will pick Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota's governor, as his running mate. UPDATE: A source close to the campaign now confirms for me that it "more likely than not" is Pawlenty. He does, however, caution me that the campaign does not actually want to leak tonight lest the Obama camp get too much of a chance to play the victim card with a sympathetic media. Below the fold, I've compiled data on Pawlenty that you might find...

Being on John McCain's short list for vice president makes Tim Pawlenty a busy guy. One day last week began with a meeting on security for the upcoming Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., where Gov. Pawlenty will play host. Then it was off to Farmfest, the state's biggest agricultural fair. Following that, a side trip to Iowa where, as national co-chair for Sen. McCain's presidential campaign, he passed out tire gauges as a way of poking fun at Barack Obama's suggestion the energy crisis be addressed by having Americans better inflate their cars. The next day it was off...

The Secret Service is denying that it conducted a security sweep of the Michigan home belonging to the sister of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). Roll Call earlier reported that the sweep took place, suggesting that it might be an indication that Romney was in line to be selected as Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) vice presidential running mate.

With John McCain on the verge of selecting his running mate, Republican delegates have selected former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as their top choice for the Republican vice presidential slot. Romney was chosen by 38 percent of delegates in a new CBS News/New York Times poll, far ahead of the second place finisher, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who was selected by 7 percent of delegates attending the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor, and Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor, were each selected by 4 percent of delegates surveyed. Louisiana Gov....

ST. PAUL – John McCain decided on his running mate Thursday, but his campaign did its best to keep the pick secret until a joint Friday appearance in Dayton, Ohio. However, political pundits reading between the lines began on Thursday afternoon to lean toward Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as the selection. Fox News Channel, with close ties to Republicans, reported that McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis told its reporters Thursday afternoon that McCain has made his pick. Earlier Thursday, McCain told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA that he had yet to decide. While Fox did not receive confirmation about who McCain...

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: The Obama campaign signaled a willingness on Thursday to go after Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., for the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse while saying that the populist argument it is building against John McCain will continue even if the presumptive Republican nominee taps the son of a truck driver as his running mate. "I don't think it's particularly relevant who the running mate is if the running mate is willing to embrace in total the Bush-McCain economic doctrine," Obama strategist David Axelrod told ABC News. "Everyday Americans understand that those policies aren't working for them,"...

Aug 28, 2008 (Detroit Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- -- Aug. 28--Fresh off what will be his acceptance speech in Minnesota next Thursday, John McCain will head to metro Detroit for a rally Sept. 5 in Sterling Heights with his wife Cindy and the for-now-unnamed vice presidential nominee. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is heading into the GOP convention in St. Paul next week -- but not before announcing his vice presidential running mate, which is widely expected to happen on Friday. The event next Friday will be a "Road to Victory Rally" at Freedom Hill...

As John McCain prepares to announce his running mate on Friday in Dayton, Ohio, speculation is centering on candidates ranging from a former head of the Winter Olympics to an independent senator as the Arizona lawmaker's choice to help him take on Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the historic fall election. With the Democrats' convention winding down in Denver, the focus is shifting to the Republicans, who are scheduled begin their nominating convention in St. Paul, Minn., on Monday. There's a chance the convention could be postponed, however, if Tropical Storm Gustav turns into a hurricane and strikes the...

I'll start: ~~~~ "Could it be Cantor? posted at 1:00 pm on August 28, 2008 by Ed Morrissey The Fayetteville Observer reads a few tea leaves in the veepstakes and suggests that Eric Cantor may become the dark-horse finalist for John McCain’s running-mate. Cantor has not yet appeared on the convention schedule, which would seem strange for such a dynamic member of the House GOP’s leadership. He also represents a Virginia district, which could prove crucial to holding the state for the Republicans in November: Rep. Robin Hayes is predicting that Sen. John McCain will pick Rep. Eric Cantor of...

DENVER — For one last time this morning, Tim Pawlenty went about the business of not answering questions about his immediate political future. Will he — or won't he — be Sen. John McCain's running mate? That's the question about 100 reporters from around the country wanted to ask the Minnesota governor at a Republican Party-sponsored news event. That's the only question Pawlenty didn't want to answer at the session in a light-industrial building on the outskirts of Denver. He's used to this dance, which is expected to finally end late tonight (if the news leaks) or Friday morning, when...

John McCain is poised to announce his vice-presidential running mate, hoping to steal the thunder of his rival Barack Obama, whom Republicans are mocking as an 'emperor' speaking on Thursday night at an 'Obamopolis'. The Republican candidate was due to appear with his vice-presidential pick at a rally in Dayton, Ohio on Friday morning, his 72nd birthday. But Republican officials intimated that a name might even be leaked just before Mr Obama accepts the Democratic nomination before some 80,000 people at Denver's Invesco stadium on Thursday. Senior aides to Mr McCain said that three people were on his shortlist -...

With the Minnesota governor in Denver to continue his role as a GOP surrogate during the Democratic convention here, reporters were bent on determining where he stands -- or rather where he'll be standing tomorrow morning. Pawlenty, a much talked-about vice presidential prospect, said that he is "scheduled to be and plans to be" doing a weekly scheduled radio show from the Minnesota State Fair tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. He told reporters that he will be leaving Denver this afternoon, bound for his home state. The interest in Pawlenty's whereabouts comes amidst news that McCain will debut his vice...

A headline like that may seem inocuous enough, but amid the fevered speculation about whom John McCain will select as a vice presidential running mate, maybe it’s a tea leaf. Or maybe not. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in Denver as an unofficial Republican observer during the Democratic National Convention, has canceled several TV interviews that were scheduled for this afternoon, said a Republican spokesman. Pawlenty said his travel plans — he is scheduled to be at the Minnesota State Fair on Friday — remain unchanged. The governor, of course, has long been said to be on McCain’s list of potential...

A headline like that may seem inocuous enough, but amid the fevered speculation about whom John McCain will select as a vice presidential running mate, maybe it’s a tea leaf. Or maybe not. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in Denver as an unofficial Republican observer during the Democratic National Convention, has canceled several TV interviews that were scheduled for this afternoon, said a Republican spokesman.

John McCain has reportedly chosen his running mate and will announce it tomorrow. It will leak today. Is it Mitt Romney? I hope so, and if you don't want President Obama, you'd better hope so, too - because if McCain does not choose Mitt, McCain loses. Snip ... internal McCain polling shows that of all people he is considering for VP, Mitt Romney attracts the most votes. In fact the polling shows a McCain ticket including Romney makes ONE OUT OF FIVE VOTERS MORE LIKELY TO VOTE FOR McCAIN - ACROSS PARTY LINES! (Nobody else scores like this.) Snip I...

Throughout this week, the chatter in both Democratic and Republican camps was that Mitt Romney would emerge as John McCain's choice for a running mate -- a feeling intensified by the presence here of the former Massachusetts governor as a lead Republican attack dog.

The Republican Women's Club of Duval, in a straw poll, chose Mitt Romney as the most qualified candidate for vice president for the Republican Party. In the Florida primary, Northeast Florida voted for Romney by a 3-1 margin over John McCain. Immediately after the poll, President Betsy Young called on me to present a resolution urging McCain to select Romney as his running mate. Romney possesses a proven fiscal record at Bain Capitol where he made household names of corporate giants - Staples, Domino's and Office Depot. In 2002, at Salt Lake City, Romney rescued the U.S. Olympics from a...

Roll Call cites sources with strong Michigan ties saying the Secret Service has conducted a security sweep of the home of Romney’s sister.

2008 US Election - 2008 Republican VP Nominee (others upon request)(expired at convention) Romney: 70.1 (+25.1) Pawlenty: 22 (-2.2) (as of 10:50 am ET)

August 27, 2008 10:28 PM ABC New's Matt Stuart reports: As reports about Sen. John McCain's vice presidential selection reach a fever pitch, likely short lister Gov. Mitt Romney is heading to San Diego. Following a raucous rally in Henderson, Nev., on behalf of the Arizona senator and presumptive Republican nominee, during which there were multiple calls for Romney to get the VP nod, the former Massachusetts governor sped off in a white SUV, flanked by police cars. Just a day earlier, Romney was in Denver, providing counter programming to the Democrats' convention just a few blocks away. Arriving at...

Romney Followed by Men with Ear Pieces Share August 27, 2008 10:28 PM ABC New's Matt Stuart reports: As reports about Sen. John McCain's vice presidential selection reach a fever pitch, likely short lister Gov. Mitt Romney is heading to San Diego. Following a raucous rally in Henderson, Nev., on behalf of the Arizona senator and presumptive Republican nominee, during which there were multiple calls for Romney to get the VP nod, the former Massachusetts governor sped off in a white SUV, flanked by police cars. Just a day earlier, Romney was in Denver, providing counter programming to the Democrats'...

CHICAGO (AFP) — Republican John McCain will seek to steal the spotlight from Democrats and limit Barack Obama's nomination poll surge by revealing the identity of his vice-presidential running mate. McCain is set to name his VP pick amid a fierce grassroots push for a partner who will uphold conservative traditions as other factions lobby for a vice-president with strong economic and security credentials. Younger Republican contenders may also see their chances improve because of McCain's age - at 72 he'd be the oldest president inaugurated for a first term should he beat Democratic rival Obama in the November elections....

Any reason to place more stock in this rumor than every other rumor over the past three weeks? Just the timing: Drudge is red-fonting the claim that McCain’s settled on a nominee as I write this, which jibes with Byron York’s sources telling him this afternoon that the inner circle held their final meeting today about the pick. Like York, I’m nervous that the name’s going to leak tomorrow and it’s going to be both swallowed up by Pericles’s oration at the Parthenon and also perceived as an ungracious attempt to step on his spotlight. But McCain’s stuck. He said...

John McCain is expected to reveal his vice-presidential choice on Friday at a rally in the critical battleground state of Ohio. Mr McCain is seeking to blunt Barack Obama’s hopes of a bounce in the polls after he accepts the Democratic nomination in Denver tomorrow night. The Republican nominee’s move comes after a week in which he and his Republican surrogates have had significant success in inserting themselves aggressively into what was meant to be Mr Obama’s week. Republican guerrilla tactics and attack advertisements have forced the Democrat’s campaign to respond in kind. Mr McCain will appear at a midday...

TALLAHASSEE -- Joe Biden's barely a blip. Mitt Romney's more of a hit. Gov. Charlie Crist should stay where he is. And Joe Lieberman should go away.That's all according to Mason-Dixon Polling & Research's latest Florida voter survey gauging the vice presidential picks and possibilities in the presidential race.The poll shows the race is almost dead-even: 45 percent favor Barack Obama and 44 percent favor Republican John McCain.Obama's decision to pick Delaware Sen. Biden on Saturday as a running mate doesn't seem to have done much for the ticket. The poll shows that those who said Biden would make them...

Mitt Romney suggested Tuesday that criticisms he leveled at John McCain during the GOP primaries would not block him from becoming the Republican nominee for vice president, arguing that he never questioned his one-time rival's readiness to be president the way the Democratic nominee for vice president questioned Barack Obama. "The clips that they have of Joe Biden," said Romney, referring to a McCain attack ad, "are ones in which he questioned Obama's readiness to be president. "I didn't say that he was not qualified to become president," said Romney, referring to his criticism of McCain. "Republicans in our debates...