Free Republic

With the experiences I had at high school and talking about politics I'm sure keeping it in "History" class is a better idea that talking about it in a random class or hallway. Snip

There are some things that just leap off the page tonight. Obviously, Obama put up a big number. Though probably 70-75 electoral votes were won in states by less than 3%, he turned Florida, Ohio and Iowa blue and Virginia and North Carolina will likely wind up in the blue column. Obama was a gracious winner. McCain was certainly a gracious loser. Speaking of losers, Ronnie Musgrove didn't seem to get the memo. As of this moment, he is trailing 56-44% and by about 120,000 votes with 99% of the precincts reporting. He has still not conceded to Senator Roger...

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Mississippi's voter situation is hard to believe. Places like Madison County have over 123% more registered voters than people over the age of 18. Sue Sautermeister, First District Election Commissioner in Madison County, tried to purge the rolls, but ran into trouble when it was discovered it takes a vote of three of the five election commissioners and the purge cannot take place within 90 days of a federal election. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is the first to admit the situation with voter registration in this state is terrible. "It is terrible," he says. "Combined...

Republican Roger Wicker, appointed to the Senate last year when Trent Lott resigned, has opened an 11-point lead over Democratic challenger Ronnie Musgrove in Mississippi. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll of the state finds Wicker leading his opponent 54% to 43% in the state's special Senate race. At the end of September, Wicker slipped to a two-point advantage over Musgrove. The race was also tight in May and June, but Wicker had begun pulling away over the summer. In August he led 47% to 42%.

Even in an election year that hardly could be worse for Republicans, nobody expected they would be at risk of losing a Senate seat in Mississippi. The state hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since John Stennis’ re-election in 1982, nor has it voted for a Democratic White House candidate in seven presidential elections. ------snip

Please pay attention Roger Wicker and Greg Davis There are many myths in southern culture. One of the latest is the myth of the modern day, "conservative" Mississippi Democrat. Currently, Senator Roger Wicker (R) and Greg Davis are locked into real battles with former Governor Ronnie Musgrove (D) and Rep. Travis Childers (D), respectively, for federal contests. Let's start this conversation with two basic facts. First, Mississippi is overwhelmingly conservative. That's a given. To even have a prayer (pardon the pun), a Democrat for statewide office must be conservative on God, guns and abortion. That's just a fact. A "true...

-snip- Though Canton is 80 percent black and was once a battleground of the civil rights movement, there is considerable ambivalence here about the chance to elect the nation's first African American president. There's a hardened sense among many in this town of 13,000 that Obama does not know about and could not understand their daily problems. Others know a black man is running but can't quite remember his name. Some are excited by Obama's candidacy but have never voted, cannot recall the last time they went to the polls, or have no idea how or where to register. Even...

When the University of Mississippi hosts the first presidential debate tonight, the two sides of its troubled racial history could converge. The Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan plan to be on campus for the face-off between Republican nominee John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, the first African-American nominee of a major party, according to a Friday report in the university’s student newspaper. University officials haven’t commented. But, since winning the bid as host a year ago, they have used the attention to promote the university’s efforts toward racial reconciliation. The university newspaper, the Daily Mississippian, first reported...

(AP Content not allowed: click on link to view original article) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_mccain_gustav

There’s little change in the race between appointed U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R) and former Governor Ronnie Musgrove (D). The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Mississippi found Wicker attracts 47% of the vote, while Musgrove earns support from 42%. Last month, Wicker had a six-point edge. When “leaners” are included, Wicker’s lead expands to nine percentage points, 52% to 43%. That’s the same as last month’s total.

It's a no good, very bad, horrible, terrible day for Musgrove WASHINGTON, DC -- Ronnie Musgrove is having arguably his worst day ever. First, he was named as the public official in the Mississippi Beef Processors Plant case. Then, the most recent defendant in the Beef case pleaded guilty to giving Musgrove a $25,000 "gratuity." News articles are even reporting there may be more action in the Beef case this week. And now, the news is reporting that former trial lawyer Paul Minor -- who gave more than $171,000 to Musgrove's campaigns -- is asking to be freed from jail....

Appointed U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R), seeking to win the job for a full term, has opened a modest lead over former Governor Ronnie Musgrove (D). The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Mississippi found Wicker attracts 48% of the vote, while Musgrove earns support from 42%. When “leaners” are included, Wicker’s lead expands to nine percentage points, 52% to 43%. These latest numbers represent a significant in the race. A month ago, Wicker held a statistically insignificant one-percentage point lead. The month before, Musgrove held an equally insignificant one-point lead.

TICKET CHOICE SEARCH With the nomination for the Republican solidifying mightily, Sen. John McCain has asked his senior advisers to begin pulling together short lists for Vice Presidential choices. At the top of list, according to one senior adviser: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. "There are others that need to be on that list, but you have to believe the Haley is a frontrunner," says the adviser, who knows both McCain and Barbour well. Barbour would be one name that puts many conservatives at a bit more ease, one of the criteria McCain understands he must meet, according to another adviser:...

Mississippi’s appointed U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R) finds himself in a very tight election battle to win the job on his own. University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato has noted that this will be a “real political battle” which is “a rarity in a state that’s usually red as red can be.” The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the race finds a pure toss-up--former Governor Ronnie Musgrove (D) attracts 47% of the vote while Wicker earns 46%.

Conservatives rationalized on May 13 when Republicans lost their third consecutive special Congressional election, in the supposedly safe 1st District of Mississippi. After all, they said, the victorious Democratic candidate Travis Childers, sounded more conservative during the campaign than his losing Republican candidate. He was a county official, a good old boy who the voters figured would be an independent conservative vote in the House as one of the Blue Dog Democrats. But once in Washington, he drank the Democratic leadership’s Kool Aid. In the first 13 House roll calls contested along partisan lines after Childers took his seat in...

Just one week after Democrats picked up Sen. Roger Wicker's (R-Miss.) former House seat in northeast Mississippi, the party's Senate campaign committee released a new poll showing Wicker trailing former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) in November's special election Senate race. The poll shows Musgrove leading Wicker 48 to 40 percent in a head-to-head matchup. Musgrove holds a 57 percent favorability rating, while 30 percent of voters view him unfavorably. Wicker also sports high approval ratings, but is less known throughout the state - which is partially attributable for his polling deficit.

GRENADA, Miss. (AP) - State Rep. Sidney Bondurant of Grenada has switched to the Republican Party. He was elected in 2003 and 2007 as a conservative Democrat in House District 24 in Grenada, Calhoun and Yalobusha counties. Bondurant, 61, is a physician. He said he decided to change parties after talking with his family and friends. He said Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and others encouraged him to make the leap. This past January, Bondurant supported conservative Democrat Jeff Smith of Columbus as Smith tried unsuccessfully to unseat populist Democrat Billy McCoy as speaker of the 122-member House.

House GOP leaders have taken the blame for last week’s devastating loss in Mississippi, but in some Republican circles the real culprit is former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss). Lott created the House opening by opting to leave Congress late last year before tougher lobbying restrictions went into effect. After his departure, Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was appointed to serve out Lott’s unexpired term, which created the need for the special election to fill Wicker’s seat. Republicans were irked that Lott would retire early just to serve his own financial interests. But that’s only the tip of the anger iceberg for...

Regardless of your political persuasion, this from a man who wants to be our president, is WELL worth the read. U.S. Senator John McCain delivered the following remarks during the first stop of his "Service to America" tour in Meridian, Mississippi: Thank you. It's good to be back in Meridian. As you might know, I was once a flight instructor here at the air field named for my grandfather during my long past and misspent youth. And it's always good to be in Mississippi, which you could call my ancestral home. Generations of McCains were born and raised in Carroll...

I am not an expert on campaign strategy, but I know a losing game plan when I see one. The Republican Party’s strategy in a series of special House elections this year has been to tie Democratic candidates to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. How’s that working? Three straight losses, all in congressional districts President Bush carried easily in 2004. Some strategy. John McCain may well win the presidential election, but at the congressional and grassroots level, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the GOP in a more severe state of disarray. The worst result yet has come from the...