John McCain

Mark Halperin writes that two sources are saying that McCain will pick Mitt Romney as his Vice President:

Two Republicans close to the situation say McCain has apparently settled on Mitt Romney as his running mate.

Two additional GOP sources say McCain had not offered the slot to anyone as of Thursday night, and that he could still change his mind

I hope so.  Romney simply reinforces the rich and out of touch image, and he doesn’t really appeal all that much to the voters in the middle.  Will he energize the conservative base?  I doubt it.  Half the conservative base isn’t comfortable with his religion, and the rest just wanted him during the primary because he was the only guy left that might have stopped John McCain.

Adding credibility to the Romney rumor, the NYTimes says that McCain will pick a pro-life VP:

Senator John McCain has narrowed his list of potential running mates to a handful of candidates and appears unlikely to select anyone who supports abortion rights, several advisers close to his campaign said on Thursday.

Makes sense after the very unhappy reaction from conservatives when Ridge and Lieberman were floated as possibilities.

But Mitt Romney is a lame pick.  McCain needs someone interesting (and surprising) if he’s going to expect his VP pick to help him.

If you vote for John McCain, don’t complain when he drafts you:

As President, John McCain will reinstate the draft.  He will force you (or your loved ones) to go to war against your will.

Either John McCain is an elitist or he is senile.  I really can’t see how there could be any other explanation to the fact that he does not even know how many houses he owns.  Is this really the guy we want running the government?  He can’t remember how many houses he owns!  That’s so incredibly absurd…

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. 

“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M.

Like I said, either that’s the epitome of elitism, or McCain is going so senile that he can’t even remember how many houses he owns.  Either way, it’s pretty sad.  This man should never be elected to anything.

CNN has Obama’s reaction:

“Somebody asked John McCain, ‘how many houses do you have?’ and he said, ‘I’m not sure, I’ll have to check with my staff,’” said Obama at a Thursday morning campaign stop. “True quote! ‘I’m not sure, I’ll have to check with my staff.’ So they asked his staff and he said, ‘at least four.’ ‘At least four.’”

“Now think about that — I guess if you think that being rich means you gotta make five million dollars, and if you don’t know how many houses you have, then it’s not surprising that you might think the economy is fundamentally strong,” he continued. “But if you’re like me and you’ve got one house — or you were like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so that they don’t lose their home — you might have a different perspective.”

According to the Politico, the McCain Campaign will announce McCain’s Vice Presidential choice on August 29th.  It’s an interesting day to pick, since it’s the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, as slinkerwink pointed out over at DailyKos.  Why does this matter?  Well, on August 29th, 2005 John McCain and George W. Bush were together in Arizona, happily celebrating John’s Birthday.  They joked, and laughed, and had a wonderful time; and they ate lots of cake.  In New Orleans people were dying.

John McCain was complicit in the tragic lack of response to the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history.  He was too busy eating cake with his pal George W. Bush to care about the people of New Orleans.

Paul Krugman gets it right, as usual, in his column today.  The Obama campaign could be destroying McCain on the economy, but just doesn’t seem to be doing so:

Why isn’t the Obama campaign getting more traction on economic issues?

It’s not the Republican offensive on offshore drilling. It’s true that many Americans have apparently been misled by bogus claims about gas price relief. But as I’ve already pointed out, Democrats in general retain a large edge on economic issues.

Nor is there any valid basis for the complaints, highlighted in Sunday’s Times, that Mr. Obama isn’t offering enough policy specifics. Delve into the Obama campaign Web site and you’ll find plenty of policy detail. And the campaign’s ads reel off lots of specific policy proposals — too many, if you ask me.

No, the problem isn’t lack of specifics — it’s lack of passion. When it comes to the economy, Mr. Obama’s campaign seems oddly lethargic.

Maybe Obama just doesn’t have the passion for economic issues.  That’s fine, everyone has certain issues that are most important to them.  But the economy is where Democrats win.  As much as the American people are against the war, McCain will never lose big on that issue (or other national security issues).  The way to beat him is to focus on the reasons for our failing economy (8 years of Bush-McCain economic policies).

Barack Obama raised $7.8 million dollars today at 3 fundraisers in California.  Looks more and more like he will absolutely dominate McCain on the money front.  If this fundraising pace keeps up, McCain doesn’t stand a chance.  He won’t be able to compete at anywhere near the same level as Obama and will be overwhelmed in state after state.

Barack Obama raised almost twice as much as John McCain in July.  Obama pulled in $51 million, which means he has raised over $400 million total so far.  McCain’s total is just $171 million.

Apparently John McCain’s campaign is so crappy compared to Barack Obama’s that the media has resorted to finding obscure, tiny groups of people that favor McCain so that they can write a big article about them.  The Politico informs us that Sports Team Owners overwhelmingly favor John McCain; even the sport team owners in Chicago!

Sports team owners may not be John McCain’s answer to the Hollywood elite, but they’re overwhelmingly supporting his presidential campaign over Barack Obama’s.

Through the end of June, team owners in the four major sports and their families have given to or raised more than $3.2 million for McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, compared with only $615,000 for his Democratic rival Obama, according to a Politico analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission, the campaigns and interviews.

Is there really nothing better to write about?

That’s not really news, we all know John McCain cheated on his first wife.  But Alan Colmes actually had some fun with that fact on Hannity & Colmes.  Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for pointing out this hilarious video: