Back Stabber

Who is trashing Sarah? Mitt Romney says the petty anonomous leaks against Palin aren't coming from him. Here's the headline in today's Boston Herald - "Mitt Romney: I’m no back stabber."

Fox News, the New York Times [NYT] and Newsweek have reported on a host of criticisms of Palin, including that she threw tantrums that made staffers cry and didn’t know Africa was a continent. Several media outlets reported some of the leaks came from within the McCain campaign. But the political blog, The Palmetto Scoop, citing “very good sources,” said it was Romney loyalists working for McCain who were behind the “premeditated last minute sabotage” of Palin.

Fehrnstrom took issue with the Scoop’s claim that as much as 80 percent of Romney’s campaign staff went to work for Sen. John McCain’s team after the GOP primary. Only “a handful” of Romney operatives joined the Arizona senator’s campaign, he said.

Others beg to differ.

GOP strategist Holly Robichaud, who writes the “Lone Republican” blog for the Herald, said: “It’s definitely Romney’s people. They’ve been doing it for a while. Romney is thinking about running again in 2012 and he needs to kill off Sarah Palin in order to get there.”

Romney has some ground to make up if he's going to face Palin in four years.

Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll shows that 64 percent of Republicans want Palin to be the GOP presidential candidate in 2012 while 11 percent prefer Romney.

Puh Puh Puh Puh Palin

In four years, America's going to be eager for change. So which Republican is best positioned to challenge Barack in 2012?

When asked to choose among some of the GOP’s top names for their choice for the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, 64% say Palin. The next closest contenders are two former governors and unsuccessful challengers for the presidential nomination this year -- Mike Huckabee of Arkansas with 12% support and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 11%.

Wow. Palin leads the next most popular Republicans by 50 points! Now we know why they're out to get her.

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin, including 65% who say their view is Very Favorable. Only eight percent (8%) have an unfavorable view of her, including three percent (3%) Very Unfavorable.

What about all that talk from liberals about how awful Palin is, and how she represents McCain's biggest mistake?

Only 20% of GOP voters say Palin hurt the party’s ticket, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Six percent (6%) say she had no impact, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Is it possible that McCain's biggest mistake wasn't Palin, but rather, McCain?

These findings echo a survey earlier this week which found that Republicans were happier with their vice presidential candidate than with their presidential nominee. Seventy-one percent (71%) said McCain made the right choice by picking Palin as his running mate, while only 65% said the party picked the right nominee for president.

Palin's strength is that she makes the base happy. From that platform, she'll have the power to go after the rest of the country.

The key for the 44-year-old Palin will be whether she can broaden her base of support. An Election Day survey found that 81% of Democrats and, more importantly, 57% of unaffiliated voters had an unfavorable view of her.

The survey numbers are from the most accurate pollster this year - Rasmussen.

Bad Weld

Do you sometimes get the feeling that they're all liars and it's all a hustle? Or do you always feel that way. Last year, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, a moderate Republican, endorsed Mitt Romney for President.

"He's a true-blue fiscal conservative and he's spelled out exactly how he's going to hold down spending in Washington," Weld said as he accompanied Romney on the first of his four public stops, a visit to the Windham Junction country store.

Two years ago, Weld, who has moved out of Massachusetts, accepted the Libertarian nomination for Governor of New York.

Weld pledged to remain on the Libertarian Line and run in November even if he doesn’t get the GOP line, for which he’s fighting former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso.

He had no hesitation sounding like a Republican on either occasion.

Weld singled out Romney's pledge to veto any federal spending more than inflation, minus 1 percent. Weld also expressed affinity for New Hampshire's tax-wary residents, noting he spent childhood summers in the state and celebrated the state's motto by proclaiming, "I'm one of these people who's heart lifts when he sees a 'Live Free or Die' sign."

Today, he added his name to the list of supporters of Barack Obama!

"Senator Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who will transform our politics and restore America's standing in the world," Weld said in a statement released Friday.

How does a Republican repeat these Obama campaign talking points without the guarantee of a payoff? Barack has never transformed anything in his life!

"We need a president who will lead based on our common values and Senator Obama demonstrates an ability to unite and inspire.

Common values? Are those the values of Acorn, Bill Ayers, Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko, or perhaps Reverend Pfleger? Being a politician seems no different today than being a Hollywood actor. Read whatever is on the page, and deliver it with style.

Race Polls

I'm sick of seeing these analyses of the "race factor," the latest entitled Poll: Racial Misgivings of Whites an Obama Issue. It's not that I don't think that racial bias is real, it's the opposite. Human beings are designed to make grand judgments about others based on the most superficial characteristics - we have thousands of prejudices. It is the glorification of racial bias without regard for the others that angers me, because this fixation on racial prejudice is part of the business model of the Democratic Party.

Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks—many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles.

Bias against John McCain because he is 72 is commonly promoted by the Obama campaign and the media, yet I haven't seen any polls using complex modern detection techniques to dodge people's attempts to hide their ageism. Nor have I heard Democrats rallying to McCain's defense in horror.

The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004—about 2.5 percentage points.

Not only that, but no one seems outraged against the outright bigotry that Sarah Palin has faced - anti-woman, anti-rural, anti-working class - snob based elitist bigotry has been heeped on her bigtime, and who is coming to her defense?

Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.

Of what consequence is this bias if whites are able to differentiate between generalized blacks and individual blacks?

More than a third of all white Democrats and independents—voters Obama can't win the White House without—agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.

They also ignore the fact that Barack suffers from other, conflicting biases. Consider the prejudice that some nasty Americans hold toward those who seek positions of power without having appropriate experience, or those who use elected office as a stepping stone rather than offering leadership.

"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.

Exhaustive? Did it explore the prejudice against Mitt Romney because he was mormon, Hillary because she was female, or Rudy because he's a bald New Yorker with an Italian surname?

The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.

If this can't be blamed on the thin resume, how about prejudice against those who are of the educational elite and look down on the bitter folk? How about bias against candidates who partner with race baiters, retired terrorists and corrupt, convicted fund raisers?

The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home—among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.

Anytime there's an article like this written, it is the equivalent of a PR piece for the Democratic Party - not because they do anything to help minorities, but because the misconception that they do is epidemic. I'm looking for some equal time consideration.

Who?

McCain has done a nice job of playing the VP card in such a manner as to steal some news cycle from Barack's big speech. On my local news, the lead story was Barack, followed by McCain's pick being announced today, followed by the weather.

Speaking of the weather, there is a hurricane coming that appears designed to make it impossible for John McCain to escape the linkage to George Bush that Democrats seek to create in the minds of voters. Imagine Gustav coming to shore through the Gulf of Mexico and hitting Louisiana and Mississippi on Wednesday night in the middle of John McCain's convention? Now that would take some skill to finesse. Katrina was three years ago today.

In the meantime, the McCain campaign is skillfully maneuvering to limit the surge from Barack's big night, even while being respectful of it.

Arizona Sen. John McCain is expected to announced his pick for vice president Thursday evening or Friday.

He decided to wait until Friday after teasing a Thursday night announcement. Leaving us all to wonder - who?

A source familiar with the search said a number of the VP contenders, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and others are expected to travel to Dayton for a Friday rally when McCain is expected to announce his running mate. That will create even more buzz around the pick, the source said.

It obviously isn't Huckabee. Lieberman is very unlikely. Romney has some positives, but would ultimately undermine Barack's appeal to evangelicals and to crossover voters. And he has the baggage of his health reform bill in Massachusetts. Which is why I figure Pawlenty is the guy.

Pawlenty, Romney and Lieberman are seen as the most likely picks, according to the source, while others familiar with the campaign single out Pawlenty and Romney.

But I keep hoping for a game-changer. A woman would be the best thing, a draw for disgruntled Democrats.

There also has been speculation that McCain might pick a woman for his running mate after Democrat Barack Obama tapped U.S. Sen Joseph Biden, D-Del., rather than U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. U.S Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, former EBay CEO Meg Whitman, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are in the mix.

Hutchinson is too old school in my mind. The benefit would be lost. No one without government experience can be John McCain's running mate - it would create a vulnerability considering his age. The CEO angle is just a tease. Sarah Palin, in her first term as Governor of Alaska, can't be considered to be experienced enough.

How about Condi Rice? Why hasn't there been more speculation about her? She's likely being ruled out because she's never held elected office.

Leaving us again with Pawlenty.

Pawlenty Good

It seems pretty certain that Tim Pawlenty will be the choice for McCain's running mate. On one level this will be great news, as it will mean Lieberman and Romney, both of whom would have been a disaster, will have been passed over.

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, taking his turn in Denver today to bash Democratic nominee Barack Obama, hammered home the Republican message that the staging of Obama's acceptance speech reveals his arrogance and vanity.

I have been hoping, however, for a game changer. A Condi Rice, Sarah Palin or some other game changer - a woman would be great - would have put team Obama into a fresh tailspin.

The backdrop for the stage at Invesco Field features faux-Greek columns made of plywood. Republicans are dubbing it the "Temple of Obama," and Pawlenty, believed to be among the finalists for Republican John McCain's running mate, piled on.

One of the difficulties for McCain in picking a VP is the experience factor. Condi has no electoral experience, and Palin is in her first term as Governor of Alaska.

"It looks like they are getting ready for the emperor to arrive," Pawlenty said on Fox News Network. "The facade is metaphor for production purposes, but there’s not much behind it. It’s the perfect metaphor for Barack Obama’s readiness to be president of the United States."

With McCain's advanced years, his VP will face experience scrutiny that's probably more rigorous than Barack.

On ABC, Pawlenty said, "This Roman-like facade, a facade with Roman columns, is a perfect metaphor or icon for the point that it's an interesting production, but behind it there's not much there."

But Pawlenty is in his second term as Governor of Minnesota, and at age 47 (same as Obama) is just about old enough for a VP.

He added, "My goodness, it's amazing that we're three days into the Democratic convention and 60 or so days from the actual election and they're still trying to plead with the American people and convince us that Barack Obama is ready to be president. The fact of the matter, he is not."

While not a game changer, Pawlenty is plenty good enough. A fresh face, a popular governor, and someone who compensates well for McCain's age. Not only that, he adds executive experience. Nice to have a VP who is more qualified than the Democrats man at the top of the ticket.

Throwing Stones

If too many houses becomes a liability for McCain, then Romney will be out as a VP choice, if he isn't already.

Romney, like McCain, owns an abundance of houses. According to news reports, the former governor of Massachusetts has at least four properties in his portfolio.

While the McCains reportedly are weighed down with 7 condos, none are owned personally, we're told, by McCain, so his lack of awareness is understandable, even if his reaction to the inquiry isn't.

There is his primary residence in Massachusetts, a ski lodge in Utah, a lake front house in New Hampshire (described by USA Today as "an 11-acre estate valued at more than $10 million on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee") and a La Jolla beachfront home in California.

While McCain should be able to shrug off such a controversy, accusations of being rich and out of touch would stick to Romney like illegal aliens to his Belmont, Massachusetts front lawn. His California place,

according to Politico, is worth $12 million, has five bathrooms, and contains "direct access to sand beach, a quiet cul-de-sac location, spacious oceanfront deck, numerous patio areas with manicured lawns and mature landscaping, lap pool and spa."

People can live with politicians being rich, since when choosing the lesser of two evils voters are generally choosing between the lesser of two millionaires. But one shouldn't reek of being rich, and Romney does.

McCain's Game

On ABC News last night, they did their best to be balanced in the coverage of Barack's trip. They did this by mentioning that McCain was struggling to find a way to fight the intense coverage Barack is receiving.

Some say that McCain has found the answer - an early announcement of his VP pick.

The scuttlebutt comes from a piece written by syndicated columnist Robert Novak. The small item, which was also posted on Drudge Report, said the campaign was considering breaking the news to mitigate any excitement around Barack Obama’s trip abroad.

The McCain campaign had its tongue planted in its cheek with the response: “We have no announcements today,” said Brooke Buchanan, a close McCain aide.

Is there some possibility that this is true, or is McCain messing with the press?

The schedule certainly keeps the possibility open for later in the week. McCain will hold a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Tuesday afternoon—a state he won in both the 2000 and the 2008 primaries. He’s also headed to a trio of high-profile swing states.

If it's a ruse, which it surely must be, it's a well orchestrated one.

And then there’s the news of the private meetings with the names of folks topping the shortlist. Reports surfaced that McCain has met with former rival Rudy Giuliani and will meet later this week with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The media traveling with McCain has been trying to get an answer, but hasn't had much luck.

To get to the bottom of the buzz, the traveling press corps rushed the plane Monday evening. A group of reporters reached beyond the curtain that divides its seating area from McCain and his campaign.

“Go away!” laughed Mark Salter, a senior aide.

“What do you want you little jerks?” McCain said.

From my point of view, the media coverage of Barack's trip has been rather subdued. It should get worse today, as network anchors start to join The One.