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Sara Palin interview on CNBC is on now.

Sarah Palin Will Be McCain Running Mate

Predicting a close election in November, former Bush Administration official and Ohio congressman Rob Portman called on Hoosiers to back Republican presidential candidate John McCain at rally Tuesday evening in Fishers. “He’s an authentic American hero and a common sense conservative,” Portman told the partisan crowd. Portman is on McCain’s short list of potential vice presidential running mates. A six-term congressman, he also served as the United States Trade Representative and most recently as President Bush’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, a post previously held by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Some of my fellow RedState contributors and I were discussing via email today why it is that a certain segment of the population is determined to push Condi Rice for Veep, as though it would be a good idea for the entire executive branch to run like the State Department currently does. During the course of this conversation, which inevitably turned to potentially *good* choices for Vice President, an unexpected name came up: Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri. More below... I was initially very skeptical of this suggestion. I didn't know much about Carcieri's record, and so I just automatically...

He’s going to transform the party — by turning us into hawkish Democrats? Nuance. There’s a bigger point — and this initial volley, they say, lays the groundwork for it. They will be sharpening McCain’s message that he, not Obama, is the true change agent, a man who’s repeatedly taken unpopular stands, made the hard calls and forged bipartisan alliances. Part of the calculus now is how his VP choice will further sharpen that message. There is significant support among top McCain advisers that he make a “transformative” pick who would change the Republican Party — someone who would appeal...

From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann and Adam Aigner-Treworgy NBC and National Journal have learned that former presidential candidate Fred Thompson is visiting GOP nominee John McCain at McCain's Arizona cabin in Sedona this weekend.

Last Friday, The Washington Times reported that "three of the eight announced 2008 Republican presidential campaigns are considering retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks as their pick for vice presidential candidate." The Times did not say which three campaigns these were, but it is hard to imagine that lower-tier candidates, like Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul, are making up vice presidential short lists at this point. If three active candidates have Franks on their radar, there is a strong chance that top contenders like Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee are among them. Fred Thompson, when he announces, could make...

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s talk-show cheerleading of President George W. Bush may be getting tiresome, but it’s all part of GOP strategist Karl Rove’s master plan to get “America’s mayor” elected in 2008, we hear. But not necessarily to the Oval Office. According to well-placed political sources, Giuliani has been working closely with Rove to build a Presidential platform against presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. “There’s been talk on Capitol Hill for months about Rove’s ‘secret meetings’ in New York with Giuliani,” says one D.C. operative. “[Rudy] is not appearing on Hardball and Larry King for his...

Vice-President Casey? After watching the Senate Hearings this week where Teddy Kennedy quizzed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, a phoenix arose from the ashes of liberal angst that resulted from the Senator's inability to score any political points by attacking the administration's execution of the War on Terror. General William Casey's stellar performance in refuting Ted's outrageous claims about the lack of progress in the War on Terror and the lack of military success in Iraq prompted several people to contact us with the suggestion of General Casey as a potential running mate for Dr. Rice. (Click here to...