My gut reaction to John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate?
I love it.
Oh, I have no idea if I’ll like Palin as a candidate. I know she is socially conservative, which isn’t my thing. And I know she’s a reformer, which is very much my thing. So I’ll give her [...]

He’s set to talk around 12.

The first female GOP VP pick.
Will she help transform the party or will she be a Ferraro?
A wild ride begins…

Both CNN and ABC News are confirming that Alaska Govenor Sarah Palin will be John McCain’s running mate:
John McCain has made his vice presidential pick: the Republican contender will tap first-term Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
The 44-year-old Palin brings working class roots and appeal to female voters, becoming only the second female vice presidential candidate [...]

With leaners
McCain – 49%
Obama – 45%
Without leaners
Obama – 46%
McCain – 43%
More evidence of a convention bump for Obama today, but will McCain’s supposedly unconventional Veep pick capture the imagination of swing voters and former, disgruntled Hillary voters?
And concerning Sarah Palin…Rasmussen reveals that nearly 7 in 10 voters don’t even really know her…
In the days Obama [...]

The Chicago Tribune’s Swamp blog is reporting that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is John McCain’s choice for his Vice-Presidential running mate:
A Republican source confirms that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Campaign officials, however, remain mum this morning.
McCain is expected to announce his choice at a rally in [...]

If true, this potential to be a game changer given the unique and contentious nature of the Hillary/Obama primary contest.
CNBC reports
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a self-styled “hockey mom” who has only been governor for a little over a year, is GOP Presidential candidate John McCain’s choice for Vice President, CNBC has learned.
According to a Republican [...]

In addition to Tim Pawlenty essentially taking his own name off the list this morning, Fox News is reporting that Mitt Romney, who may or may not be in Dayton today, is not John McCain’s choice for a running mate:
Sources told FOX News that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will not be McCain’s choice, even [...]

This comes via Marc Ambinder, and it seems to confirm that Tim Pawlenty will not be the Republican nominee for Vice-President:
Just now, he spoke to CBS affiliate WCCO in Minneapolis and said that he would be picking up his regular schedule today and that it would be safe to assume he wasn’t the pick…..
That would [...]

When you mix that Secret Service story with this latest news, a clearer picture begins to emerge.
Still no word on where Pawlenty will be tomorrow. Sources say he’s in Minnesota currently with no currently plans to go anywhere this weekend.
However, as Ambinder points out…
It would be weird, wouldn’t it, to force the losers in [...]

This is just plain weak…
“Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise [...]

He thought it showed a toughness we haven’t seen yet from the candidate.

Of note, I’ve always thought that Todd is one of the savvier, intellectually honest pundits out there. Perhaps even more so than the late Tim Russert. So something tells me that his will be the consensus opinion come tomorrow.
We shall see…

Video provided by MSNBC.

What impressed me so much about this speech is Obama essentially reframed the American Dream tonight as something we can all share if we believe in the liberal traditions of fairness and equality.
So call him a fake and a phony all you want. But tonight he called upon the middle class to [...]

This is it folks…
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To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and [...]

The Secret Service put Biden under their protection right before the news broke he was Obama’s veep, but this appears to be a different situation…
If security sweeps are the giveaway, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may be on the brink of being selected as Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) vice presidential running mate.
According to sources with [...]

At least that’s the guess that Erick Erickson offers, and offers this as backup…
A source close to the campaign now confirms for me that it “more likely than not” is Pawlenty. He does, however, caution me that the campaign does not actually want to leak tonight lest the Obama camp get too much of a [...]

Red State’s Erick Erickson claims to have inside knowledge on McCain’s Veep pick:
I’m confident enough to put this up now, but willing to be wrong.
Right now though, every sign, signal, and background chatter indicates John McCain will pick Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota’s governor, as his running mate.
UPDATE: A source close to the campaign now confirms for [...]

From Politico:
In a strong sign that John McCain has not selected Joe Lieberman to be his running mate, Republican members of Congress were told today by McCain’s campaign that the Arizona senator would tap a traditional number two, according to a GOP source. [...]
McCain has been mulling the prospect of tapping Lieberman, and the Democrat-turned-independent [...]

45 years ago…

How’s the dream holding up today?

The speech is entitled “The American Promise” and it seems to be aimed squarely at the middle class swing voter.
Here are some excerpts…
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Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story — of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or [...]

The following report from Politico runs counter to what I just posted about him appearing on Meet The Press…
Tim Pawlenty, who had been in Denver on behalf of the McCain campaign and GOP, has stopped doing media interviews and cleared his schedule. [...]
An RNC aide said they were instructed to suspend Pawlenty’s counter-programming activities. The [...]