I am too tired to check this right now, but I really do not think Crist is pro-choice. Tom Ridge is and that by itself is costing him being in the top-tier. Crist would not be there if he was pro-choice. There are other reasons conservatives distrust him; I detailed some of them here a few months ago.

As for McCain, I thought Crist would be picked for a long time, but Crist is pro-choice, is he not? Now it looks to me like it’s gonna be Pawlenty, and probably he will be named very soon, so as to get his name out into the public eye. Pawlenty brings very very little to the ticket, but he probably has few negatives as well. He makes a good sock puppet.

I don’t think they’re very numerous but have no way of telling, and theya re extremely venomous. The Manchester (NH) U-L had a column today on the Clinton supporters and quoted one die-hard who said that MI and FL rsolutions were equivalent to a ‘gang-rape’ and referred to Obama as Dean’s ‘paper-boy’, ugly stuff and particularly so in a New England state where race hasn’t been a historical problem. You don’t reason with people like that.

Magnify that by a couple of hundred (remember the disruption Rules) and you’ve got a made-for-YouTube moment you’d rather forget.

The primary is in 3 weeks, and the GOP have six others challenging Stevens in the primary. I don’t believe the GOP can replace Stevens unless he wins the primary. The other 6 running in the primary are lightweights. At that time, let the fighting begin…

I think the name “Begich” is pretty powerful in Alaska, especially since Begich’s father was the US rep before Young. Also, there will be some coattails in Alaska with the Presidential election with Obama on the ticket.

I still think Clark and Montana Governor Schwitzer would be good choices for Obama. Not mentioned much but Clark has great military experience, the grassroots like him and he is associated with Clinton.

On the VP stakes, Kaine in my opinion could present some problems because he is pro-life, and angering pro-choice voters, especially women who supported Clinton would be a very bad idea. However he did say that he wouldn’t change abortion law even if Roe vs Wade was overturned I believed so maybe he would be OK. Besides this, Kaine as well as Selbius would be good safe choices for Obama while Biden and Bayh would help alot on foreign policy but possibly overshadow Obama and course Biden has his problems with keeping his mouth shut.
Joe from NC, the PUMA voters are too little and the drawbacks of Clinton both in terms of the campaign and governing are too much to warrent her on the ticket. Most of Obama’s weakness among Clinton voters are among those who are undecided rather than those who say they are going to vote McCain. Those willing to vote McCain are probably going to vote McCain no matter what, while those who are undecided probably just need more convincing that Obama is supieror to John McCain, he can get those voters if he is smart enough and uses Hillary Clinton in a good way.

For McCain, the only real choices to me are either Rommney or Pawlenty. Crist just has too many problems with the Republican base and too little benefit while Portman has said he isn’t interested in the job. I think Pawlenty is almost a GOP version of Kaine, except that he brings a little less drawback but a little less benefit to McCain, just like Kaine, Pawlenty’s approval rating in Minnesota are around the 50’s range and will probably only add maybe 2 points in a state that Obama is likely to win with double digits or high single digits. Rommeny on the other hand would help McCain in terms of the ecnomny, and could probably help in Michigan and maybe New Hampshire, as well as get Mormons to vote in big numbers in Nevada. However, a major drawback would be that Rommeny would hurt McCain immensily with evangelicals, as many of them despite Rommeny party because of anti-Mormon bigotry, but also because of Rommney’s shifting positions on abortion and other social issues. McCain will win the evangelical vote regardless, but it will be by a much narrower margin than Bush and other Republians, and with Rommeny on the ticket, few evangelicals will be willing to volunteer for McCain and do all of the ground work needed in many swing states. Pawlenty is probably the better choice cause he is much safer but we have to see who McCain picks.