Mitt’s concession:

I want to begin by saying thank you. It’s great to be with you again. And I look forward to joining with you many more times in the future.

Last year, CPAC gave me the sendoff I needed. I was in single digits in the polls and I was facing household Republican names. As of today, more than 4 million people have given me their vote for president, less than Senator McCain’s 4.7 million, but quite a statement nonetheless. 11 states have given me their nod, compared to his 13. Of course, because size does matter, he’s doing quite a bit better with his number of delegates.

To all of you, thank you for caring enough about the future of America to show up, stand up and speak up for conservative principles.

Mark points out that Russert may be correct. McCain may be dangling the VP slot to Huckabee:

The Meet the Press host is demonstrating how John McCain is dangling the VP slot to Mike Huckabee. And Huck seems as transfixed as a hound before a bone, judging by the way he’s staying in the race against all odds and spending his time taking shots at Mitt Romney.

If that is the case, my worries of a McCain nomination just disappeared!

Michelle has these picks posted:

Hillary Clinton/Wesley Clark: “He endorsed her last September. He’s a Rush Limbaugh-bashing, nutroots favorite. He does not threaten her. His anti-war crusading will take the Code Pinko heat off of her. And having run for president once, he’s been “tested” on the campaign trail.”

“>

John McCain is the Democrats favorite Republican!

My choice?

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See: Video: McCain, Graham, Huckabee continue to smear Romney on Iraq

Hillary and Mitt won in Nevada. On the Democratic side, Clinton had 51 percent and Obama had 45 percent. John Edwards had 4 percent. So how can it be that OBAMA WINS MOST NEVADA DELEGATES? For the Republicans, Romney had 51 percent, Ron Paul, 13 percent, John McCain took in 13 percent, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson took in 8 percent, Rudy Giuliani took in 4 percent and Duncan Hunter took in 2 percent.

In South Carolina, the polls have just closed and this is a tight race.

McCain wins

Big surprise! Hillary Clinton is breaking her pledge not to campaign in Florida

So much for Clinton and Obama burying the hatchet: Obama: Reagan Changed Direction Of Country In Way Bill Clinton Didn’t

Clinton knocks Obama plan she’d consider
Republicans ponder deadlocked convention

A look at the 2008 presidential race

8 of the 12 delgates went to Romney. Michelle has a good round up of the day’s event. News Busters weighs in with What If They Held an Election Without the Media? :

Indeed, today’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle notes how state Republicans “want the event to end by 3 p.m. so the state can get a mention in the Sunday New York Times.” “A mention” in the New York Times? Is that their dream of a successful media splash?

Obama Criticizes Edwards’ Record…
Clinton: We Don’t Vote for Advisers…
Huckabee: Stronger Military, Families…
Romney Takes on McCain Over Taxes…
Giuliani Glad to Be Back in NH…
Locking them in…

Who could it be? Is it true?

Now, as I say it’s a rumor; I haven’t seen the supporting evidence. But the person who told me said it offhandedly as if everyone in his world knew about it. And if you look close enough you can find hints of something impending, something potentially derailing to this candidate in the reporting of the campaign. Which could mean that something unspoken, unwritten about is influencing what is written, what we read.

I think this is a Democrat, or there wouldn’t be so much agonizing over its’ release. I’m am thinking Edwards or Clinton. Edwards because of the affair rumor, and Clinton, because of the gay rumor. I also don’t think that the MSM wants to hand an election to a Republican, do you?

HotAir:

Both parties are guilty of this

Elrick Williams’s toddler niece Carlyn may be one of the youngest contributors to this year’s presidential campaign. The 2-year-old gave $2,300 to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

So did her sister and brother, Imara, 13, and Ishmael, 9, and her cousins Chan and Alexis, both 13. Altogether, according to newly released campaign finance reports, the extended family of Williams, a wealthy Chicago financier, handed over nearly a dozen checks in March for the maximum allowed under federal law to Obama.

A supporter of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), Susan Henken of Dover, Mass., wrote her own $2,300 check, and her 13-year-old son, Samuel, and 15-year-old daughter, Julia, each wrote $2,300 checks, for example. Samuel used money from his bar mitzvah and money he earned “dog sitting,” and Julia used babysitting money to make the contributions, their mother said. “My children like to donate to a lot of causes. That’s just how it is in my house,” Henken said.

H/T to Nice Deb at AOSHQ, for the link to this well written article by Bill Kristol at The Weekly Standard:

The Democratic nominee looks likely to be either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Hillary is furiously triangulating (it’s a family tradition), criticizing Obama for saying he’d meet with the Iranian mullahs and then saying she would, voting for a hawkish resolution on Iran then cosponsoring a dovish one. But even Bill’s triangulation got him only 43 percent of the vote in 1992 and 49 percent in 1996–and in terms of political skills, Hillary’s no Bill. Obama, for his part, seems no more experienced in dealing with serious affairs of state than Jimmy Carter did in 1975. Obama could conceivably follow in Carter’s footsteps and get the nomination–but America learns from her mistakes.

Kucinich, Obama, Edwards, Biden, and Richardson withdrew their names from the Michigan primary ballot Tuesday. “We’re very disappointed,” said Jason Moon, spokesman for Michigan’s Democratic Party. “Those two states [Iowa and New Hampshire] basically blackmailed the candidates. They forced them to sign the pledge, not to come.” Now Hillary signed the exact same pledge, she won’t campaign here prior to the primary(the promise), but won’t take her name off the ballot, therefore winning Michigan by default. In whatever limited mental capacity she is working with, Governor Granholm said, Obama and Edwards “bailed out” because they were “more loyal to Iowa and New Hampshire than they are to the other states.”

Thus the best-laid plans of Clinton and Gov. Jennifer Granholm have paid off. Thanks to an early primary pushed by Granholm, Clinton is in a position to win the first big industrial state to vote next year and her campaign doesn’t have to spend a dime in the process.

In response to this article in the NYT’s by James Dobson, I wanted to link to this Rasmussen Reports poll. Keep in mind that “a survey conducted earlier this month found that 72% of Republicans think Giuliani is at least Somewhat Likely to win the White House if nominated. However, the current survey finds that number falling to 58% if Christian conservatives back a third-party option. ”

Dobson:

I mean really! Michigan is in the news because they pushed up their primary to January 15th. Much debate was made as to whether it should have been a primary or a caucus.

The state Senate estimates that a primary, for both parties, would draw more than 2 million voters to the polls.
It estimates that a caucus, on the other hand, might draw just 100,000 Democrats and, incredibly, just 4,000 to 6,000 Republicans.

On the Democratic side, those behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running ahead in the polls in Michigan, want a primary. They think a wide-open process would encourage first-time voters, including the women and minorities who support Mrs. Clinton, to come out and vote for her. Plus, Mrs. Clinton will have plenty of money to run as many ads on television as she wants.
Those backing former Senator John Edwards prefer a caucus. Why? Mr. Edwards’s campaign manager is David Bonior, the former Michigan Congressmen, who has strong ties to organized labor. The unions can be highly influential in a caucus, which depends largely on ground organization. They would have much more control over a caucus, which is too complicated and time-consuming for the average person to attend.

Our choices are:

Sam Brownback
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Tommy Thompson
Fred Thompson

My first choice is Rudy, but to be honest…I think it is way too early to be deciding on anyone. I figured we had until at least November.

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took aim at Democratic rivals on Sunday, calling them all unprepared to lead the country and comparing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s economic plan to that of Socialist Karl Marx.

“It would be helpful to have a person leading the country who understands how the economy works and has actually managed something,” the former Massachusetts governor told reporters after a GOP fundraiser. “In the case of the three Democratic front-runners, not one of them has managed even a corner store, let alone a state or a city.”

This was a wonderful and most truthful attack! Continue reading…

And a few other pesky facts, including the Michael Moore Fact Myth Sheet :

After watching Chris Matthews fail miserably, with what can only be described as a waste of time(watch video), it was refreshing to see Brit Hume host a respectable debate.

So how do the questions from the first GOP debate, moderated by MSNBC and the Politico.com, match up to the questions posed by the FOX News panel in the second debate?

It’s not even close. Opening up the Media Blog vault and reviewing the first GOP debate after having just watched the second was a revealing exercise. I think the MSNBC/Politico questions actually got stupider with age.

By contrast, the FOX News questions were serious and the questioners tenacious in pursuing answers. Even the questions that viewers submitted to FOX via e-mail were far better than “What do you dislike most about America?” and the other nonsense that got past the Politico’s electronic gatekeepers.

Just in case you all needed a little help in making a Presidential decision this early in the game - - here’s where a few of the candidates stand on todays Supreme Court ruling on Partial Birth Abortion:

Hillary Clinton (D) - “This decision marks a dramatic departure from four decades of Supreme Court rulings that upheld a woman’s right to choose and recognized the importance of women’s health. Today’s decision blatantly defies the Court’s recent decision in 2000 striking down a state partial-birth abortion law because of its failure to provide an exception for the health of the mother. As the Supreme Court recognized in Roe v. Wade in 1973, this issue is complex and highly personal; the rights and lives of women must be taken into account. It is precisely this erosion of our constitutional rights that I warned against when I opposed the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.”