Palin It Is

Surprising pick from the McCain campaign but what a great one I think. Palin adds executive experience, a pro-life record, an NRA favorite, a woman, taking a safe Republican state back into that very safe category, and her speech today was great.

Dem's have already been heckling me saying that she has no experience. Well she certainly has more than Barack Obama. They say she has no foreign policy positions either, well neither does Obama. If you lined up their resumes and asked who was running for President it'd be tough to say. Anyways, I'd rather have the experience at the top of the ticket than having to boost it at the bottom as Obama did with Biden.

Great pick, a bit risky, but definitely a game changer.

McCain Veep Countdown

Apparently, John McCain has decided who his running mate will be and the announcement will be coming tomorrow.

Drudge has reported that it may in fact leak tonight at 6pm with a confirmation of some sort at 8pm. We'll have to wait and see...

Saxby Debut's TV Ad

Nunn Out, Bayh In?

Well it seems that Sam Nunn is no longer in the running for the VP spot on the Obama/Messiah ticket.

Does this mean that Obama is Bayh-curious?


Bayh the way, how awful was Obama during Saddleback? I've said it before and I'll say it again, at some point during this campaign, we'll get to see the two candidates together side by side having to answer questions, and its clear to me who will prevail in that setting.

Tim Kaine Ruled Out For VP Slot

Kaine clearly doesn't meet the cool factor in having a vice president.

Jackson Browne Is Running On Empty

Jackson Browne can feast his eyes on the video below. And I'll play it as much as I want!

DSCC Poll Can't Bring Martin Above 36%

Well Schumer and Martin are up to it again, this time with their good friend the Mellman group involved.

They have cooked the books and released a poll suggesting Jim Martin is within striking distance of Republican incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

This is funny for several reasons:

1. This poll was paid for by the DSCC and to the Mellman Group, a polling agency that was used extensively by the Clintons back in the day to boost their own numbers publicly.
2. The poll likely used a set of likely voters that is completely unrealistic. Something like 90% African American turnout and 20% White male turnout.
3. Even with this manipulation of the numbers they could not legitimately bring Jim Martin above 36% of "likely voters."
4. Even with this manipulation they couldn't bring Saxby below 42%.

If they are going to be honest about this poll and claim it has any credibility I'd call on the Mellman Group to release its demographic breakdown of what it claims are likely voters used in this poll.

These polls are used to to and drive donors to the campaign so now they can say "hey look we're within striking distance." What Martin doesn't realize is it can backfire so the Chambliss campaign can say "hey look, we've got a target on our back."

Both will likely happen, and Martin has already used the line to get new money out of Senate leaders adding to his PAC money with a donation from Sen. Byron Dorgan's PAC.

Congrats Jim Martin on being the status quo.

Peach Pundit's Independence Day

Today over at PeachPundit, SpaceyGracey, who writes the Mostly Media blog and contributes at Peach Pundit, was removed from her front page posting privileges by founder Erick Erickson.

Grayson had frequently posted inane things completely unrelated to Georgia and this move was a long time coming. This is the second high-profile removal after Andre Walker was removed following his outting as a campaign operative.

Spacey commented in the thread with her usual class:

FU, Erick. You can have your little (small) swinging d*ck party all to yourself now. Go ahead, post about spanking your little two-year old kid ’til the cows come home to roost with the chickens and the mixed metaphors. She lives in Georgia after all, with her real classic jerk of a dad. If she never speaks to you as a teen, don’t say I didn’t warn ‘ya. (BoyReporter too.)

Congrats to Erick and to echo the words of one commenter and President Thomas Whitmore let me say: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"

Gen. Election Begins: Saxby hits hard and Martin lags with Outsider Groups

Via the Political Insider we get news of the opening ceremonies if you will of the general election race with dueling press conferences. Senator Saxby Chambliss was able to tout his recent bipartisan work with the "Gang of Ten" that has worked out an energy plan in the Senate that seeks to provide solutions for the current energy crisis.

Sen. Chambliss also previewed his campaign strategy against Democrat Jim Martin who was chosen by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to run this race. Martin will be cast as a liberal and a tool of Chuck Schumer.

Martin has already had outside negative groups started on his behalf like "Take Back Georgia Inc." which is run by Mike Cantone and Beth Hand out of Hand's mediation company office in Cumming.

You remember Cantone right? He used to work at the state party as field director and was one of the "confirmations" that the Democratic Party of Georgia was pressuring unions to retract their endorsements of Rand Knight.

Cantone wrote: ""I simply picked up the phone this morning and got it confirmed to me as well after making a few calls by more than one person that the meeting did take place, in Matt Weyandt's office at the DPG (Andre is not one of the sources either). The fact is, the DPG just got caught, not once, not twice, but all over the place. They tried to meddle in HD55 siding with their own staffer Rashad and got caught. Also, they have alienated the campaigns of Vernon Jones, Rand Knight, and I can't imagine Dale Cardwell or Josh Lanier being too happy with the state party either, so how in any way is that a good thing for our party? Also, I had two people that work at the DNC tell me they are aware of the growing number of grumblings coming from GA and none are too impressed with what's going on.""

That story was later retracted by Andre over at Georgia Politics Unfiltered and Cantone made out to basically be off his rocker.

Cantone has also admitted being paid for work on behalf of Vernon Jones' campaign. Looks like he didn't do his job well enough then, so what makes me think he'll do anything different this time around.

I guess theres a reason why they've only raised $420.

Newt Compliments Johnny and Saxby

"We saw five Democratic Senators on Friday join with Senator Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaakson and others to form a bipartisan energy caucus in the Senate..."

Tonight Tonight

7:33 P.M. : The returns have begun to come in and so far its relatively neck and neck. With 2% of precincts reporting Jim Martin holds a 164-vote lead over Vernon Jones. The returns so far have been from a variety of counties, but nothing concrete so far. I'll keep you updated up to a certain point, but I have more important things to do, like research my fantasy football team.

7:38 P.M. : Wow how five minutes change things. With new reports in Martin leads Jones 59%-41% in a lead about 1,500 votes. Will keep watching even though this is more boring than watching Martin campaign.

7:48 P.M. : With 4% of votes in Martin has extended his lead over Vernon "Snuggles" Jones and now leads by over 2,000 votes. Still early, but trending isn't looking good for ole' Vernon.

7:58 P.M. : With about 9% of precincts in there has been a little bit of narrowing as Vernon has come back from a 20-pt deficit to now what is a 13-point deficit. It's still early folks.

8:08 P.M. : Martin's lead is stagnant at a 57%-43% lead with only 16% of precincts in. None of Fulton nor DeKalb has reported yet.

8:18 P.M. : Narrow narrow narrow. Martin's lead is now barely over 10% with DeKalb and Fulton yet to come in. Those counties could be surprises either way though as Martin won DeKalb in the first primary but now Jones has put a lot more effort in there.

8:28 P.M. : So much for narrowing. With 37% of the vote in Martin re-extends his lead to 59%-41%. I don't see Vernon winning this one. I'll update more sparingly now.

8:52 P.M. : It's all but over for Jones. Jim Martin is your Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

Martin Stoops to New Low

Jim Martin's campaign has stooped to a new low in their desperate attempt to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. This report from the AJC confirms that the Martin campaign has resorted to a "racially tinged" robo-call in an attempt to drive white voters to the polls tomorrow and connect his opponent Vernon Jones with the infamous (or famous depending on your outlook) Cynthia McKinney.

This comes merely days after Martin had announced the endorsement of Rev. Joe Lowery, a black minister. Martin had been criticized for not being able to draw legitimate African American support until the endorsement of Lowery, but now it looks like the Martin campaign has lapsed into politics as usual.

So much for unity.

R.I.P. Skip Caray

Roundup over at Awful Announcing.

The Final Weekend (this time its final)

Tuesday night we will know Georgia's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. It will be Vernon Jones or Jim Martin. And this weekend Martin actually decided to get out there and meet those voters!



Can't you just feel the enthusiasm? I mean I get that Martin is maybe just a reserved guy, but to win not only the nomination but a general election matchup versus an incumbent you're gonna need a little (make that a lot) more pizzazz. Jim Martin just is an unappealing politician.

Forget his scandal at DHR for a second, this is just someone I can't feel enthusiastic about going to vote for. People like to talk about the "enthusiasm gap" between Obama and McCain voters, but Jim Martin's "enthusiasm" number must be rock bottom.

All the blogs are talking about how Martin's win is inevitable. Well, I'd like to throw off the conventional wisdom and I will make my own prediction.

Vernon Jones: 53%
Jim Martin : 47%

Count it.

Over in Congress...

Madness has taken over the House floor. Speaker Pelosi has adjourned the House for their 5-week vacation but Republicans have refused to leave.

So Pelosi had the microphones, cameras, and even the lights of the House chamber shut off. Yet the Republicans refused to leave.

Highlights so far:

• Rep. Devin Nunes parading around the floor pretending to be a Democrat with their idea of an energy plan-- a VW Bug with sails attached.
• Rep. John Shadegg randomly entering codes into the PA system and lucking into the right code turning the lights and microphones on. Shortly after the Democrats had them turned off again.
• And finally Republican House members embracing in hugs on the floor of the chamber. You don't see this everyday.

Change You Can Believe In