Posted on 07/22/2008 6:53:52 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
ROCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) – It's VP tea leaf reading season, and a Republican source who attended a small private meeting with John McCain Tuesday in New Hampshire tells CNN that the GOP candidate dropped a serious hint about Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
The Republican source said "out of the blue" McCain told the gathering that he thinks they are "really going to like" Pawlenty.
This GOP source noted that McCain also said nice things about Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani, but those appeared to be standard lines he says about former rivals.
This source said McCain may have been talking about Pawlenty because the meeting was with New Hampshire GOP delegates, and the Republican convention is in Pawlenty's state.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Well, it would sew up the ethanol/global warming vote......
As a proud Minnesotan, I think this would be absolutely great, but I don’t think it’ll help the GOP in the Mid-Atlantic states. He’s going to need Romney, who would really help him in the Rust Belt - at least a lot more than an “unknown” (outside of Minnesota) like Pawlenty.
Shush...don’t say it too loud. The Flip Romney Kool-Aid drinkers will have a conniption.
I just don't know a lot of people who give a diddly damn about global warming. There are even fewer who can entertain that luxury during an economic downturn.
He’s done absolutely nothing to stop the ethanol plague. About a million acres of South Dakotan grassland managed by the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) went up in smoke this year - ALL OF IT piled into corn - I can’t imagine what the numbers are here. I find it ironic that one of the main reasons the corn is being planted is because of ethanol, yet the planting of this corn is causing huge damage to a lot of wildlife which ethanol improves (supposedly). Ring-neck pheasant populations in the areas where CRP grass has been transplanted into corn are expected to be completely decimated - some estimating that it will be roughly 1 - 2% of their former populations.
Pawlenty also got swept up into the great Minnesota infrastructure heist because of the I-35W Bridge Collapse. One of the two major heists that were caused by this collapse was actually in my city (Saint Cloud MN) - the DeSoto Bridge, which shared a similar design to the I-35W Bridge, was closed indefinitely and is expected to be completely replaced by 2009. And guess what? It’s all paid for by the TAXPAYER. What a joke.
Other than that, Pawlenty has great stances on all of Minnesota’s social issues. He’s extensively pro-life and other than his little infrastructure adventure after I-35W, he’s really started to decrease the enormous bureaucracy around Minnesota.
I’m just glad I live where I live - any further south and you get swamped by rabid Minneapolis liberalism and progressivism.
I'd heard the St. Cloud area had gone completely left. Not true?
The 10th Street Bridge (University Bridge as it is now called) is still standing and in good condition. Good thing it is to, because that and Veteran’s Bridge are now the only two ways of getting across to the east side apart from going all the way to Sauk Rapids/Sartell and taking either the Bridge of Hope or the Sauk Rapids Regional Bridge.
Saint Cloud and the 6th District is still very conservative, as is evident by Bachmann. The CPVI ranks us at R+5. We’ve had a lot of CODEPINK rallies here lately (no thanks to sponsorship by the cancer known as SCSU), but I have no doubts that there’s a huge resurgence of conservatism in the Greater Saint Cloud area (surprisingly by a lot of youth) and I think we’ll see that reflected in the exit polls come November.
Ridge would have to take the same pro life pledge that GHWB took in 1980 at Reagan’s insistance. It actually worked well.
a. There had been a large influx of Muslim Somalis on the SE side. That, and
b. Jacob Wetterling's mom, a far, far lefty,- had run for Congress and won.
So toss SCSU and their influential faculty in the mix, and I'd written off the entire region.
Wetterling ran for the 6th District House seat in 2004 and 2006 and lost against Kennedy and Bachmann, so I have no idea where you heard that the glorious 6th District voted in that nutcase. (God forbid we could have.)
The Muslims on the SE side are generally very friendly and hard workers. Surprisingly, I’ve even met a few conservative Muslims who agree with a lot of the GOP’s positions. My uncle met a couple Iranians who emigrated from Persia and they consistently tell him that immediate intervention in the Islamic Republic is 100% necessary. Irregardless, we’ll see how they throw their weight around in November. Unfortunately, I have a feeling the voter turnout for that demographic will be very low.
Worry not, Cloud 9 is still very conservative. American flags, pro-life bumper stickers and “support our troops” ribbons are relatively abundant. Even the now mythical George W. Bush ‘04 campaign stickers can be spotted once in a blue moon. I wouldn’t go as far as to rank it the most conservative city in the Great Plains, but it is definitely up there, and could possibly be the most conservative city in the Upper Midwest.
(Refreshing sigh of relief!) That’s great, thanks for the update. I’m beginning to have a better understanding of why my left-leaning family members have moved. Well, it was actually the (Land of) “ten-thousand-taxes,” as they are actually Libertarians.
That’s an unwelcome truth, but Pawlenty has done a lot to destabilize the bureaucracy. During his first year as governor, he completely balanced the budget, turning our $4.3 billion dollar deficit into revenue neutral without raising any taxes, primarily by slashing social services and welfare. Minnesota still has A LOT of work to do, but I’m willing to bet that this state is going to turn from hard blue to purple to hard red in another two decades at most.
First thing from the drive-bys: "...McCain taking political advantage of the tragic deaths of 35W vicims..."
Stay tuned.
From your description, he sounds like a Huckabee without the Elmer Gantry slickness and religious bigotry.
Pawlen...who???
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING????
No ONE. Absolutely NO ONE, knows who this guy is. It’s not about ‘what has he done’, because VPs dont do anything! They can only ADD - or SUBTRACT - to the ticket based on WHO people THINK he/she is!
MCCAIN needs some help, Pawlenty brings little if any. Minny going for a Repub, doubt it. Romney brings far more to the table...
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