U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Michael Bennet
(D) Phil Weiser
60%↑
50%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Jena Griswold
(D) David Seligman
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) A. Gonzalez
(D) J. Danielson
(R) Sheri Davis
50%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(D) Jeff Bridges
(R) Kevin Grantham
40%
40%
30%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Trisha Calvarese
(D) Eileen Laubacher
90%
20%
20%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Manny Rutinel
(D) Yadira Caraveo
45%↓
40%↑
30%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
August 29, 2008 04:30 PM UTC
110 Comments
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Made you look!
ABC reports Palin is still in Alaska, supposed to be at the State Fair today unveiling the new quarter or something.
Lieberman may also be a head-fake – I just can’t imagine the GOP convention taking Lieberman as VP and actually liking it.
Portman is from Ohio…
it could make for an interesting VP debate. All either of the two candidates will say is, “I agree with Joe”, and “Joe is right”, on every issue except the war in Iraq.
I’m thinkin’ its Palin….the folks at the Fair will understand if she can’t make the quarter unveiling.
23 years older than the state of Alaska!
But Palin is great. She’s going to be real trouble for the Dems.
She has 5 children and an 80% approval rating in AK. She’s extremely intelligent, and focused.
Huge NRA supporter.
You guys are in trouble.
People in AK are extremely self-reliant. It’s a great contrast with the Dem ticket who wouldn’t have had gigs in their adult lives without Government programs.
Love it.
what on earth has governor Palin been providing them? Doesn’t that cut the other way?
I’m not saying there isn’t upside, I’m not even saying its bad choice. I’m saying that there’s not an intellectually honest way to argue that Obama lacks sufficient experience but she has sufficient experience. But even more important than intellectual honesty, perhaps, is that the truth is so plain here that anyone who argues otherwise (senator McCain, for example) will look like such a politician it will hurt.
It’s possible that none of the big names wanted on the ticket.
Mittens did some major league ass-kissing over the last four or five months, all to no avail.
And Charlie Crist went out and got himself engaged. BTW, is that wedding still on?
The NRA issue is gone after Obama’s speech last night. He vowed to uphold the second amendment.
One line in a typically vague speech about the 2nd amendment doesn’t counteract his history.
He spotted us the whole NRA months ago.
No one has brought the pork home like Ted Stevens. Not to mention the welfare check every one in the state gets from oil revenues.
And her view on Stevens. It’s part of what brought her to prominence among some conservative R’s.
Were….
http://tpmelectioncentral.talk…
Link.
http://voices.washingtonpost.c…
He won a primary.
Now you’re just projecting. She’s the most under-qualified pick McCain could make, let alone carrying prepackaged scandals along with her and a nude photo for the family values peep!
You crack me up. McCain could have picked Michelle Obama and you’d find something negative to say about it.
Do you think that at least it’s an interesting pick?
I must say it was one I wasn’t expecting. I thought Mittens had it and was looking forward to writing something negative to say about him! 🙂
What going to be very interesting is McCain’s two-step on choosing someone who’s resume undercuts McCain’s arguments against Obama.
Also, will this effect McCain’s energy policy?
To a question I posed. Thank you very much.
I feel as though we’ve crossed a threshold in our personal relationship and can now move forward to the next level.
Hehe.
I think you’re right about the energy policy, but I’m pretty interested to see how she’s going to present herself.
At the least, do you agree that it’s really taken the headlines away from Obama’s speech last night to some extent?
“At the least, do you agree that it’s really taken the headlines away from Obama’s speech last night to some extent?”
Sure, but it’s almost been a full week of solid good news for the Democrats, tremendous speeches (Kennedy, BOTH Clintons, Schweitzer, both Obamas), which ended in an enormous crescendo last night with the acceptance speech, and a highly successful convention to boot. How could it go any better ?
But 4 days is enough. Let’s give the other side some ink.
If he were 10 points up, which he totally should be, but he’s not.
It’s also not great for him that by far the two best speeches of the convention were given by two people that didn’t (to my knowledge) even stick around to see him close the convention last night.
Hillary was there last night.
there goes that argument !
I was surprised she didn’t come onstage, and originally she and Bill were scheduled to leave Thurs. morning.
I might be wrong, but I haven’t heard from anyone other than WLJ that she was there.
Governor Palin’s husband is a union employee for BP no less and she was one too.
She also has fought corruption and government waste.
What an American story!
p.s. YES on 47 to stop forced union dues, just like Governor Ritter provided to state workers
But didn’t the Republicans just get done saying that kind of talk was worthless?
She’s done more for herself without relying on Government programs than Sen. Obama. She’s an executive. She’s opposed corruption in her own party.
Obama is more like Ken Salazar lite.
but she flunks the test your candidate has said is most important and what’s more you know it. Maybe it was the wrong test, or maybe she’s the wrong candidate, but the idea that McCain’s rhetoric before today left open the door that a 20 month governor could be ready to be president is flat dishonesty.
No more amendments to our state constitution by out of state money! No more special interests written into the constitution. No more financial handcuffs on the state! No on 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55!
You have to inject your propaganda into everything.
This coming from a guy who complains about Union Dues but has no problem with Americans paying 40% of their income on their own health care.
Since we won’t know for sure until a couple of hours from now, here’s something of a prediction….
1) Romney
2) Pawlenty
3) Palin
4) Portman
McCain has been competitive in the polls, so picking someone like Lieberman isn’t as probable since he doesn’t need a huge shot in the arm. If it turns out to be Palin, I’ll be very happy (she’s my second choice after Romney). Pawlenty’s stock has risen considerably lately because of Obama’s pick of Biden, and McCain would be helped by having someone with a blue collar background
from TPM
Well this is awkward:
http://www.politico.com/news/s…
just clueless as to what the VP does. With Wooten Gate information to boot.
“He picked the MILF!”
n/t
Senator McCain has invested so much time and money into saying senator Obama shouldn’t be elected because of inexperience, and then goes out and chooses someone with even less experience.
I guess he hopes people will pay enough attention to governor Palin to like her but not enough to note the irony?
The really unfortunate part for him I think will be to kick-start serious discussions about McCain’s age and health. The remarks on age have been confined mostly to jokes thus far, but he’s just invited voters to begin handicapping his life expectancy.
The Democrats just finished making the case that a new face can be a good leader, which will make it hard to turn on a dime and begin to criticize governor Palin, but Republicans just finished making the case that choosing someone without experience would be a disaster, which begs the question: what are the odds that senator McCain’s vice president will ascend to the presidency, possibly soon?
But that doesn’t seem likely does it? What’s the convention narrative now? For Democrats it was Obama=Change, McCain=More of the Same. You’d have expected that for Republicans it would be “not ready to lead,” but doesn’t this put a pretty big elephant in the room? Is there anyone who is going to say governor Palin is ready to be commander in chief out loud in public? And if the Republicans do, aren’t they either expressly or impliedly conceding their main point to senator Obama?
From McCain’s statement announcing the pick:
“Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president.”
Her time in office is less than two years, prior to which she was a municipal official. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a campaign completely devalue its own narrative quite like this before. Certainly not after investing hundreds of hours and millions of dollars in it.
executive experience than either Biden or Obama.
She’s the Governor of the largest State in the union.
Obama built a 50 state campaign operation from scratch. That’s executive experience.
Largest state sure..but more carribou than people. More people live in Chicago than Alaska.
Just keeps stating the ridiculously obvious as a plus. I love it.
You have a grand total of 6 posts.
I thought you all wanted different views on here?
Different views are fine, but different views that obviously are beyond parody just sort of take the fun out of the debate.
And views that don’t jive with yours are “beyond parody”?
Gee, I wonder why liberal Dems are sometimes viewed as elitist?
XOXO
but he is not a troll.
that’s almost a congressional district ! How does she do it ?
It’s tongue-in-cheek, and obvious that it’s the largest State. In terms of area.
That’s funny.
why is everyone so uptight? Obama made the same joke when Hillary said he hadn’t won any big states. “I thought Colorado was pretty big”
Dems = Truth to humor
R’s = Dishonest metaphors
(For the more reactionary of you, the above is highly sarcastic)
Geographically? Sure.
Population? Not even close. Unless last night Alaska got such a huge population boom that it now has more people than California. Either that or you’re advocating giving Caribou the right to vote.
This choice scares the holy s..t out of me, She has no foreign policy experience, none. She will be the puppet of the cabal which ran gwb… This is finger in your eye, America….Because at age 72, McCain’s VP choice is really significant…
It puts the catholic vote into play….bishops can say with a choice between a “pro-life ticket” and an “pro-choice ticket,” catholics have to choose the pro-life.. ..
It will be interesting to see how much this fires up senator Clinton for senator Obama. There has been much talk of she and Bill quietly hoping McCain would win, but now if that happens, overnight senator Clinton will become an underdog in the race to be the nation’s first woman president.
If McCain’s age or health forced him to only serve one term, Hillary would be looking at challenging an incumbent woman.
Hillary does not become first female president of the US. Ouch!
Could still become the first elected female president, though.
Palin is a bold choice, and unless she screws it up or decides to leave public life, she’s likely to be a star in the future of the GOP for quite some time.
But the choice is extremely risky. Her youth and inexperience undercut the attacks they’ve been making on Obama. Her ties to Big Oil don’t help McCain on the energy front. And her very strong anti-choice stance will solidify the impression of independents that McCain is not a pro-choice Presidential pick.
OTOH, she’s considered a “maverick” and a corruption fighter in her own right (assuming you discount her current scandal as relevant), and McCain’s image on that front has been attacked relentlessly in the past few days and weeks. She should shore up McCain’s image among the Religious Right / “family values” crowd, though his record should have done that all on its own. And maybe McCain still figures he can pry away some of Hillary’s die-hard women supporters, though I and a few of my fellow Democrats were unable to find any of these supposed discontents.
My overall view: McCain’s choice will not do anything to lock up his nomination, but he is doing an incredible favor to someone in whom he perhaps sees a kindred spirit. Palin gains national attention and experience debating the formidable Biden and can become a true force in GOP politics in the future.
Like was done for Dan Quyale or Geraldine Ferarro? If someone is a lightweight, getting this doesn’t change that.
Picking Pallin takes away McCain’s best lines of attack.
Age. experience. Celebrity. I mean she is a 44 year old has been governor for less than 2 years (I think she was the mayor of mayberry for a couple of years before that). She was runner up in the Miss Alaska pagent–now that’s a real celbrity.
She looks more like McCain’s grandaughter or 3rd wife. Now questions about his age and health are going to be on everyone’s mind.
Throw in wooten-gate, which brings up McCain’s past history of black balling people.
Having 2 X chromosomes is not enough.
Wooten-gate is not going to help. That is going to strike a nerve with a lot of people.
The question is will it get much attention. Who knows.
Perhaps it’s worth paying more attention to the interview she gave a few weeks back in which she said before she could decide what to think about being picked as VP, someone would have to tell her what a a VP does.
Sarah Palin fired a cabinet member, the Commissioner of Public Safety, who was a man named Walter Monegan. She claims it’s because he was not effectively carrying out her agenda, and wasn’t willing to work with the rest of the government on budgeting. Other people claim that it’s because we was refusing to fire Mike Wooten, an ex-husband of Sarah Palin’s sister. Wooten was in a custody battle with Palin’s sister.
Firing Wooten came up because he got himself in some trouble: he apparently has a nasty temper and made (apparently not particularly serious) threats to kill someone. From Wikipedia, he also tasered a kid who asked him to do so (wanted to find out what it was like?), and there was some other issue. Normal procedures got him suspended for a short time, but there was pressure to fire him. Monegan blocked that pressure.
So the questions are:
1. Did Sarah Palin fire Monegan over refusing to fire Wooten? Or because he wasn’t an effective commissioner?
2. If it was over firing Wooten, was she doing it in retribution for Wooten’s custody battle with her sister?
I tend to answer question 1 in Palin’s favor, which means Wooten doesn’t even come into the picture. On the other hand, someone else (not Palin) in the state government just admitted to applying a lot of pressure toward Monegan to fire Wooten. So it’s still developing.
Palin’s ex-brother-n-law, mike wooten, was going through a custody fight with Palin’s sister.
Wooten is a state trooper.
An aide to Palin called the head of the state police, walt monegan, to lean on the head of the police to fire wooten. He doesn’t. Then Monegan is fired as managaer of public safety for unclear reasons.
The investigation is still ongoing.
Will she resign as governor to campaign? If not, who will be in charge? What about her children? Doesn’t she have very young ones?
We need more information. Dave from Boulder, what can you link?
Is her Lt. Gov. is in a tight primary with Congressman Don Young, a primary where the winner may not be declared for days.
If her Lt. Gov wins, and Palin becomes VP, we’re going to see succession work in real life in Alaska
for McCain. Not only is he selling out to the far right by picking an extremist like Palin, who is overwhelmingly unqualified even as a VP, he’s also highlighting his age and gender and as a negative for himself.
He choice someone not because he thought she was the right person for the ticket, but because he thought it was good political stunt to shore up some votes. This stinks of desperation.
I’m not sure if we’re watching the last season of the West Wing, or the short-lived series, Commander in Chief.
But for the fact that he’s African-American and not Latino, Obama is obviously the Jimmy Smits character from West Wing, Biden is Leo McGarry (hopefully minus the Election Night fatal heart attack), and McCain is playing the role of Alan Alda.
But change the TV channel and we see Sarah Palin playing Gina Davis’ character on Commander in Chief. She’s selected with virtually no experience to compensate for the gender gap which the tired, old white male candidate fielded by GOP has to attempt to close.
It looks like the ratings sweep this year will fall in early November.
Exactly what I was thinking…
I had been wondering if Aaron Sorkin had been masterminding this whole election. Obama seems like a character he dreamed up, and McCain is the moderate conservative he always wanted.
I think I need to go rent the final few seasons of the west wing to research how this all will pan out.
but how many Nuclear reactors does Arizona have?
Nothing like picking a complete unknown VP candidate who totally and completely undermines the two main arguments in favor of your campaign – experience and foreign policy expertise.
Also when was the last time a major party selected a VP candidate who was currently under investigation in their home state for corruption?
A total disaster for the GOP today. On the heels of history being made in Denver McCain just dropped a giant turd in the swimming pool.
http://steampoweredopinions.bl…
in Colorado going to try to defeat Affirmative Action here when their party’s VP pick is an obvious Affirmative Action selection?
It looks like the Dems are going to play the sexist card (I’ve already read slurs in this post). Here is Jim Clyburn (this quote reminds me of the Jesse Jackson comment made by Bill Clinton that he vehemently criticized–Go Go Hypocrisy):
McCain did something brilliant he choose a TRUE Washington outsider. As I heard a delegate to the DNC say last night “We need change and it is not going to come from inside Washington.” She cleaned up the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in less than a year, a true reformer, with A RECORD OF DOING SO.
Obama’s speech only gave him 12 hours, not to mention if Biden attacks her like he has McCain, he is going to come across as “one of those mean ‘Republicans,'” Barack always talks about.
oh and the link to the previous post
http://time-blog.com/real_clea…
Its a tacit admission that Obama has been right all along. You’re right that this will generate more excitement among conservatives, but will that be enough? Can excitement for a change-candidate VP beat excitement for a change-candidate president?
I’m a little dissapointed because I was really looking forward to some Mittens bashing, but I’m sure Romney was disqualified as soon as McCain couldn’t remember how many houses he had. You can’t have a VP pick who owns more houses then you have forgotten about.
Overall though I am thrilled with this pick. McCain has just completely undercut his strongest argument, that Obama does not have the experience to be President. Someone on this board argued that she has more experience then Obama, are you kidding me? She has been Governor of a small state for less then two years, and before that she was a Mayor of a town of 8000 people, and now she will be a heart beat away from the Presidency. Wow.
The other thing to be noted is just what this says about the McCain campaign. This pick is an obvious pander to women voters and former Clinton supporters. If that really is there strategy then they are worse off then I thought. The pick hints at a desperate campaign.
If Palin is qualified then former Arvada Mayor Ken Fellman should have been Obama’s pick. Arvada is 10x the size of the town Palin was mayor of and he was mayor for 8 years.
She was picked because she doesn’t have a penis and they are hoping that Hillary’s supporters were supporting her only because she doesn’t have one either.
It really shows how thin the Republican bench is. This is the most qualified person they can come up with?
It certainly bolsters McSames mavericky image but it will also cast additional doubts on his judgement.
if they were determined to find a female VP candidate more qualified than Palin they could have turned to Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Kay Bailey-Hutchison, Linda Lingle or Condi Rice. Why were they not picked–each of them are more qualified (with the possible exception of Lingle) to step in as Commander-in-Chief?
With the exception of Bailey-Hutchison, they are all pro-choice.
Palin is probably the most “qualified” pro-life woman out there.
one or two in the house that have more experience.
Musgrave? At least that way the ‘pubs might be able to save her House seat….
is that everyone on the Right knows this ship is taking on water faster than the Titantic and don’t want to be rearranging the deck chairs.
Don’t the Republicans already have the rabid anti-choice vote already locked up? Someone as fanatically anti-choice as Palin isn’t going to resonate with Clinton supporters. It really questions McInsanes judgment to angle for Hillary supporters with a women who is against everything that Hillary is for. What a contradiction in strategy.
She probably helps secure the right-wing base, but was that really such a problem or was it a smattering of grumbling along the same lines as still unhappy H. Clinton supporters?
What does Palin bring to the ticket that will sway undecided/unaffiliated voters?
If this is the argument used to foil the “she has less experience than Obama” argument, then it cuts both ways….McCain has no executive experience either. I guess that makes him unfit to lead?
After the last week of seeing Barack and Joe together, the ticket of McCain / Palin is bad, bad, bad.
It points out how far out of touch McCain is. He believes women will vote for any woman. Not true. Women are notorious for not voting for women. Women wanted Hillary – experienced, tough, known, competent. Just like Blacks want Barack and not Jesse Jackson, women do not want Palin. She is no Hillary.
McCain is showing how little he knows about the American people.
I sure as hell hope so. She’s up against Joe Biden. I am guessing she’s going to get shelled.
Alaska doesn’t have an income tax. Citizens get a check from the government every year, thanks to royalties from the Alaska pipeline. The state has historically relied upon the seniority of its pols (notably Stevens and Young)to scam vast sums from the federal treasury (remember the ‘bridge to nowhere’?). The political culture is that of an incestuous, self-regarding small town, suspicious and contemptuous of outsiders. Simply put, Palin’s a hick-an attractive, articulate hick who delights the Republican faithful, but a hick nonetheless. She’s less qualified to be president than any of the five Republican El Paso County Commissioners-at least two of whom, Sallie Clark and Amy Lathen, are smarter, prettier, more sensible, and just as credible as Ms. Palin.
Yeah, remember though, how independent all those Alaskans are. Isn’t Alaska one of the main we-get-more-money-from-Washington-than-we-send-in-taxes states?
Not only does it not sound like what I’ve read, but it doesn’t sound logical.
Not saying not so….
It’s hard to talk about killing Affirmative Action if your VP pick is arguably another “Geraldine Ferraro” not-the-best-choice choice.
Hypocricy. If you are on one hand trying to do away with Affirmative Action while practicing it on the other…that would be hypocricy.
Affirmative action means ONLY this: between two equally qualified candidates, choose the one belonging to a group that’s historically underrepresented.
Sarah Palin is tokenism: picking someone clearly unqualified solely because of their belonging to a group. See Thomas, Clarence.
I stand corrected.
Words mean things.