It's Time

With McCain trailing in the polls in Iowa by a fairly large margin, Iowa Republicans need to get serious about this election. Even if you still think of McCain as McCan’t, he is at the top of the ticket and a major loss by him will take other good Republicans down.

We have great Congressional candidates along with a very young and promising Senatorial candidate in Chris Reed. We also have many die hard conservative Iowa House and Senate candidates that need a strong showing by McCain to win.

We don’t need McCain here to do it but we do need Sarah Palin. She is our motivation this election cycle and with her principles, conservatives can be proud to volunteer for their candidates and county party organizations. I know we need to get the conservatives in northwest Iowa ramped up. If you remember, Bush visited NW Iowa a couple times before the election in 2004 and barely carried the state. Palin can do the same in 2008.

McCain campaign, if you are listening…here is your formal invitation to Iowa!

Who’s Hot, Who’s Not

Who’s Hot:

McCain is red hot after picking Gov. Sarah Palin for his VP candidate. She’s young, attractive, and very fiscally and socially conservative. Way to go John.

Sarah Palin is smoking hot! She’s got everything America needs.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks has some great coattails now with the McCain-Palin combo at the top of the ticket!

Obama is lukewarm. His convention, according to Gallop tracking polls, gave him a slight bump. Problem for him is the latest poll has the McCain-Palin ticket by 2 points.

ANWR – with Palin in favor of drilling in ANWR we can expect more support for new domestic oil.

Who’s Not:

Hillary Clinton is about as cold as you can get. She’s finally done and with her, the Clinton dynasty all but dies.

Mitt Romney is getting colder every second. Without the VP pick, he’s got eight years off. I’m sure he’ll be back but it will be a long time from now.

David Hartsuch is fairly cool as well. He needs to get out there and get some votes. I don’t know what he is doing right now, but I know it isn’t running for Congress.

Finally!

As an active volunteering conservative, I feel like I finally got a bone thrown my way by the McCain camp. He could have picked Ridge, Romney, Pawlenty, Lieberman or another establishment running mate. But McCain gave conservatives a reason to get out and work for him, not just against Obama.

Palin is an up-and-comer in the Republican Party. She has taken on corruption at many levels and even in her own party. She looks at a budget and doesn’t just cut the fat; Palin takes her lifetime NRA membership trigger figure and blows holes in it.

Palin is just as socially conservative as she is fiscally conservative. She is pro-life and pro-marriage. She has five children, one has Down syndrome and one enlisted in the Army on September 11, 2007.

By choosing Palin as his running mate, McCain has leveled the political playing field. Obama is the first African American presidential nominee. Palin is the first female GOP running mate. McCain’s Achilles heel of age is neutralized by the youth and energy of Palin. Obama’s grey-haired DC insider running mate is opposed by a true change-agent who has changed the status quo.

I can feel the adrenaline rushing through the GOP as our enthusiasm raises with McCain’s brilliant VP pick. On to November!

McCain's VP Pick

McCain’s pick today will determine if he has a shot at winning this election. If he screws up and picks anybody less than conservative he just as well pick one of his seven houses to live in for the next four years.

Just heard Romney is out – thank the good Lord. Also heard Pawlenty is out. Alright, who’s next? That narrows it down to Palin or Lieberman or maybe a surprise pick. I’m waiting with a sense of doom. I don’t trust McCain’s judgement – I never have.

I’m rooting for a conservative dark horse or Palin. She has been a budget hawk and takes transparency in government to a new level. Her downside, she only brings three electoral votes from Alaska. On the other hand, her gender will ratchet up interest in the ticket and be an equalizer in that regard.