There are some rumors going around the Internets about who John McCain, having pretty much sealed the deal of being the Republican nominee, will pick as his running mate.  Choosing the Vice Presidential candidate for a ticket is an extremely strategic decision.  The running mate is often used to court groups whom the Presidential candidate has not yet won over.  In this case McCain still is not popular among the ultra-conservatives, so he most likely will pick a running mate who is.

Some of the names being floated:

• Mike Huckabee, the "my-son-shoots-dogs" creationist who is popular among religious Neanderthals zealots;
• South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who garnered a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union;
• Jeb Bush. Do I even need to explain why this gives me nightmares?

Keep in mind that McCain is not sure if he would seek a second term if elected due to his age, so one of these men could be the front-runner for the 2012 election.

It appears that Karl Rove is prepared to put the powers of Satan his campaign machine into high gear for McCain, especially if Jeb Bush is selected as the running mate.  Yesterday he donated the maximum amount allowed by law to the McCain campaign.

We Democrats need to unite, and we need to do it soon.  If we don’t we’ll have another four or more years of damage to undo, and by then it may be too late.

Hillary Clinton wrote a guest blog piece over at The Bilerico Project.  In it she reaches out to our community, outlines her plans if elected, and asks for your vote.

Here’s a segment:

"We have so much work to do. When I am President, we will work together to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal benefits and that nothing stands in the way of loving couples who want to adopt children in need. We’re going to expand our federal hate crimes legislation and pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and assure that they are both fully inclusive of all people. And finally, we will put an end to the failed policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice – the traits that define our men and women in uniform – have nothing to do with sexual orientation."

You can read her entire post here.

You can also see Hillary Clinton in a live Townhall meeting tonight. It starts tonight at 9 p.m. EST. You can tune in on Hallmark Channel or watch it streamed live over her website at HillaryClinton.com.

Scott-O-Rama here. 

Anyway, thanks Chris for this great piece.

I have been a supporter, vocally and financially, of Hillary Clinton’s since the day I first saw her with her husband, then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Prior to the 1992 election I had never heard of either of then, but once I heard them speak, together and separately, I knew I was listening to a new generation of politicians.

In 1992, after having grown-up in the1960s and having experienced all that goes with that, both Bill and Hillary brought something new to the political arena. Their passion and belief that government could change, and change for the better, was rooted in the ideals of the 1960s.

When the country elected Bill Clinton President of the United States in 1992, we were unconsciously voting for Hillary as well.

It was instantly acknowledged that Hillary Clinton’s intellect was equal or superior to that of her husband’s. She was already an accomplished lawyer, business woman and community activist. She was smart, strong and had a complete sense of herself – an identity outside that of her husband’s.

She was a new genre of First Lady. She wasn’t a classic beauty with an arm-length long pedigree like Jacqueline Kennedy, nor was she the grandmotherly Bess Truman and she certainly wasn’t matronly Barbara Bush. Accomplished and outspoken, she was a partner in the presidency.

Since that time my support for Hillary has never wavered. For me, she is without peer. It excites me that she is the first serious female candidate (no offense Shirley C) with a shot at winning the presidency, but more importantly that she is one of the smartest, most experienced, and fair-minded candidates ever.

Fashions and seasons may change, but the conscripts who authored our constitution were purposeful in our government’s design. They, unlike our current president, understood that negotiation and concession were essential and key to our form of government and so does Hillary Clinton. She is a practical politician who realizes the need to stand firm for what she believes, but pairs it with the understanding that sometimes there is a need for compromise.

Hillary also understands, unlike the current president, the importance of relationship building, both abroad and at home. She is well respected and admired by the leaders of countries around the globe, and has many admirers among her Republican counterparts.

Today while contemplating writing this I remembered that several Republican senators have given Hillary high praise over the past few years. One such Republican was none other than Arizona’s war-hero Senator John McCain, who very well may be her opposition in the November election.

During an appearance on “Meet the Press” on February 20, 2005, John McCain was asked his thoughts on a Hillary presidency and he said, “I am sure that Senator Clinton would make a good president.” Although he made it clear he would be supporting the Republican candidate, he reiterated, “I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good candidate.”

Additionally, Tom Cole was the (Republican) House Majority Whip in April 2005 when he told the National Journal that “She (Hillary) projects strength and the capacity to run the country, to pick smart people, to know when to compromise. Those are things that the last few years have proven to me she can do. I don’t see any of our guys who could beat her…..”

That gives me hope that other Republicans can see the promise of a Hillary presidency. As a person who rarely votes for my personal interests, I have to hope there are others who vote for what is best for the country.

As trite as it may sound, I vote for people.

I vote for those who don’t understand, or were never shown, their significance in the process. I vote so the uneducated may someday learn their potential. I vote so no child goes to bed hungry. I vote so senior citizens do not have to choose between medical prescriptions and food.

I vote for the factory worker who works for 30 years and then loses his pension as the company relocates overseas. I vote for the veteran whose life was torn apart by the separation from his family as he served his country in an ill-conceived war and then returned home with a mutilated body and splintered soul. I vote so that in 25 years my great-grandchildren will be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

During the past eight years we have endured a moral and spiritual depression where opportunity and serenity were overthrown by a furtive, omnipotent, hypocritical, greedy dictatorship and due to that greed we have the largest division of wealth this country has ever experienced. Few people could handle the challenges that face our country but I believe Hillary can, and will, put us back of track economically.

I trust she will restore our place in the world community. She is uniquely qualified as she has known many of the world leaders for upwards of 16 years. She understands the complexity of these relationships and she has the maturity to know we cannot accomplish anything globally without the support of other countries.

Although Hillary stands on her own merits and will be the ultimate decision maker, I believe in the extension of the Clinton legacy, and I look forward to celebrating the repudiation of the mega-wealthy and returning this country to the middle class, and giving every American the opportunity of reaching their full potential.

I genuinely hope people listen to Hillary’s position on the issues, instead of listening to the pundits, and if they do they will discover what I have known all along…Hillary is the smartest and most qualified for the job.

I say we need to GO BACK TO THE FUTURE AND ELECT HILLARY!

Scott-O-Rama here.  Today is the third in my series of guest bloggers explaining why they made the decision to support Hillary Clinton.  As many of you know, I’ve decided to vote for Hillary Clinton since John Edwards dropped out of the race.  I hope you’ll read the reasons for my decision here.

Up today is Adam of This Boy Elroy.  Thanks Adam!

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but America is wounded. The blow we were dealt at the start of the decade was just beginning to heal in 2004 when the Bush administration, in an effort to divide and conquer, dredged up wedge issues to secure another four years of executive abuse. It worked for some time, but now that the playing field is wide open in this year’s general election the nation needs someone to reverse the damage that has been done to our reputation overseas and realign the United States onto a track that leads us away from these seven dark years and finally bring us into the light of then new millennium.

The person who can deliver that task to us is Hillary Clinton.

Plainly, the reason why I support Hillary Clinton is that I am confident that she can do the job from day one. She has the knowledge and experience to make her plans happen. She may not be the most charismatic speaker, she may not give us a warm fuzzy feeling in her speeches, but this isn’t a contest for America’s new best friend - this election is about selecting the next President of the United States of America. We’ve already experienced what it’s like to have a president who people thought was "just like you and me" and made you feel good. It didn’t work out so well, in fact it got us into a big mess. Hillary Clinton can clean up that mess and take us further as well.

Other democrats may not feel as passionately about the candidates as I do, they are loathe to see how Clinton and Obama differ. Turn off your TVs, take some time to read the material on each one’s website and you’ll see the differences clearly. Take for example the issue of health care. On Clinton’s website you can access a fourteen page PDF that clearly outlines her American Health Choices plan. It’s an unambiguous and detailed twelve pages, two of the pages are just pictures, that sets clear and definitive courses of action for providing affordable healthcare to EVERYONE in this country. Not only does she present what she wants to change, but she also explains how she intends to pay for it, and on the final page there is a balance sheet showing the total amount of savings under her plan, $110 billion. Clinton’s plan is incontrovertibly about bringing healthcare to the people and SHARING the responsibility of healthcare among ALL citizens, a plan that has good intentions AND feasible courses action to bring those good intentions to fruition.

Another reason why I’m enthusiastic about Clinton is that I am confident that she can win in November. Hillary has been through the ringer with the republican attack machine and she has proven, even recently, that she is not one to lay down and give up easily. Hillary Clinton believes in her cause and the people behind it and she’s prepared to fight for it with strong resolve and dignity. Not only am I confident that Clinton will win, I am also confident that after she takes office she will produce results with minimal sacrifice to her original goals. When Clinton is president it is expected that she will have to reach across the aisle to work with Republicans, if Obama were to win he would face the same challenges. However, Clinton will not be overly conciliatory to Republican ideology in the vain of amity. The Republicans have had the past years to do as they please with little or no oversight and I cannot support a Democratic candidate who says that he would want to reach out to Republicans on matters such as foreign policy. They tried, they failed, their foreign policy has landed us with a tarnished reputation and a quagmire in Iraq.

The next president must have conviction in his or her abilities and ideologies from day one, the time for ham handed amateurs has come and gone. Hillary Clinton knows what she stands for and possesses the conviction and knowledge to the be next president of the United States. Although I won’t be voting in a Super Tuesday primary I wanted to express my reasons for why I support Hillary Clinton to those of you who will be making a decision on Tuesday. It’s been a long, dark seven years and I am not immune to sweeping speeches that make me feel good and inspire me to love my country again.

I understand the ache that my fellow democrats have to want to see a president who was cut down in his youth resurrected in another young senator. The choice to me is between perceived substance and actual substance. What inspires me about Hillary Clinton, more than a speech, is that she has been a force of change in this country for years and she will bring that force with her to the White House. The current situation dictates the need for clear direction and experience in making government work for the people. The current situation dictates the need for someone who can expedite reversing the damage that has been done and someone who won’t back down to confront those who did the damage. The current situation dictates the need for someone who can restore our credibility and goodwill with the global community.

The current situation calls for Hillary Clinton.

Scott-O-Rama here.  As many of you know, I’ve made the decision to vote for Hillary Clinton after John Edwards dropped out of the race.  I hope you’ll read the reasons for my decision here.

I’ve asked some guest bloggers to share with you why they are supporting Clinton.  Up today is TED of The Neighbors Will Hear (NSFW).  Thanks Ted!

This is a good year to be a Democrat.  From the beginning of this campaign season, I’ve felt that each of the three leading Presidential candidates was someone whom I’d be happy to support and who had an excellent chance of winning the general election in November.  Now that only two choices remain and the primary in my state is less than two weeks away, I’ve had to stop and think hard about whether my initial impulse to vote for Senator Clinton is something I should stick with.  I think it is.

I am, of course, cognizant of political considerations.  I know that some people think that Senator Clinton can’t win a general election.  I strongly disagree, and I believe the concerns about her electability stem from assumptions that are no longer valid .  I’m aware of the results of polls showing various hypothetical match-ups.  But I don’t believe that polls asking people to choose who they’d vote for in a contest that’s nearly a year away have much predictive value.  If they did, Rudy Giuliani would be the Republican nominee.  If Senator Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, people will have a lot of time to get used to the idea and to see that many of their preconceptions (which I have never shared) are baseless.  On the flip side, all of her negatives are fully known.  She was a target of nasty attacks in 1992 and again in 2000, and she has already withstood a level of scrutiny that no Republican candidate has yet had to deal with.  The public is not yet fully aware of Senator McCain’s baggage; Senator Clinton’s baggage is old news.   And given that I believe that both she and Senator Obama can win a general election, I can vote for who would make a better President.

Let me be clear that this choice is not an easy one.  I think both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are terrific candidates, and it pains me a bit to see how much rancor there is towards one candidate or the other on some of the liberal websites.  The fact is that while there are some differences on the issues, those differences are relatively minor, and almost everyone I know has chosen whom to support based on other considerations.  There are a lot of different ways to characterize those considerations, but in my mind you have one candidate (Senator Obama) who stands for hope and vision and another (Senator Clinton) who stands for hard work and ability.  I am definitely not saying that Senator Obama is not hard working or able (he is); neither am I saying that Senator Clinton has no vision (she does).  But they have each chosen which attributes to emphasize in this campaign, and I think it’s accurate to say that each is playing to his or her strengths.  Given the similarities in their positions, when I choose how to cast my vote, I’m choosing which of those strengths is more important right now.

The time when vision is the most important attribute will, I hope, come again.  And I believe that the time for Senator Obama will come.  I would love to see a Clinton-Obama ticket, and in eight more years, I would love to see a President Obama.  But I don’t think he’s the best person for the job right now.  If you’re stuck in Egypt, and you want to get to the promised land, and there’s a desert between the two, you can’t just say "let’s go to the promised land" without going through the desert.  And you can’t even go through the desert until you get the hell out of Egypt.  I realize the comparison is hyperbolic, but, after the last seven years, is it not apt?

This is a hard time to be an American.  We have had two terms of an administration that is greedy, corrupt, incompetent, and contemptuous of the public who elected it.  As of this moment, America is a still great nation that is on the very edge of becoming a once great nation.  It’s tempting, at a time like this, to think that what we need is vision and hope.  But does any of us not know what’s gone wrong since Dubya assumed office?  Is where we need to get to not painfully evident?  What we need is someone with the awareness of how desperately difficult the way ahead is.  Someone with the ability to lead us along that desperately difficult way.  Someone who is tough enough to keep at it and keep at it and keep at it again no matter how hard anyone makes it to proceed.  I have no doubt that Hillary Rodham Clinton is that person.

And that’s why I’m going to vote for her.

Hi everyone-

Scott-O-Rama here.  Last night I gave you the reasons for my decision to support Hillary Clinton here.  If you haven’t read them yet, I really hope you’ll take the time to do so with an open mind.  I’d consider it a personal favor. 

While there’s a lot of press coverage about "Barack’s Bandwagon", there are a lot of us who have made the decision to vote for Clinton.  I wanted to give some of those people a chance to explain what their reasons are for supporting Hillary, so I asked them to guest-blog for me.  First up is my friend Ed from Whine & Cheese.

Change. 

The buzzword of this presidential campaign.  And how Hillary Clinton, the first woman with a realistic shot at the Oval Office, is apparently not viewed as "a" (let alone the) candidate of change is absolutely beyond me.

If you are among those who think Clinton is a dip back to the past, another chapter in a political dynasty, a divisive figure, or a prickly personality… perhaps the first place to start looking for a change is in the mirror.

What’s troubled me in the primary season is hearing how Clinton is this divisive figure.  It’s seems to be on a continuous loop so much so that it is simply accepted as the truth.  It’s disappointing hearing it from Democrats (or, more accurately, non-Republicans) particularly when it’s used as a one-word, knee-jerk reasoning to not vote for her.  Since being elected to the Senate in 2001, Clinton has hardly been yanking chains or becoming the poster child of partisanship.  Her alleged divisiveness among the electorate is one of the myths dispelled in The New York Times endorsement of Clinton:

We know that she is capable of both uniting and leading. We saw her going town by town through New York in 2000, including places where Clinton-bashing was a popular sport. She won over skeptical voters and then delivered on her promises and handily won re-election in 2006.

Ultimately, for me, it’s the oft-mentioned "experience" that distinguishes her from Barack Obama.  I’m guessing many will scoff at First Lady as Oval Office qualifications. Otherwise, both are lawyers and Junior Senators, with Clinton notching just one more Senate term than Obama.  That said, I  believe it gives Clinton the most unique combination of experiences of any Presidential candidate in history - a front-row White House seat for 8 years coupled with nearly an equal amount of time working at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.  As First Lady, she had the invaluable experience of meeting world leaders and traveling the world (79 countries, the most for a First Lady).  As Senator, she has traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq.  While this apparently places the burden of "Washington insider" upon her shoulders, I fail to see the liability of first-hand experience in two of three branches of government.

It has been quite encouraging to see the enthusiasm for Obama and, for that matter, Clinton.  In my lifetime, I have not seen this much excitement over two nominees, let alone two Democrats.  While I am not totally feeling comfortable with the outcome of the general election no matter who the nominee is, I sense that change is coming. 

If Obama is the nominee, he will certainly have my vote.  But as the latest round of party infighting has  returned to that hypothetical "Day One" in the Oval Office, with it being further splintered as the need to be not only "ready" but "right" — I believe Clinton can be both.  Again, I quote from the Times Clinton endorsement: "Voters have to judge candidates not just on the promise they hold, but also on the here and now."

If you’ve read Clinton’s memoir Living History, it did not take an "emotional moment" in New Hampshire last month to know there is a "real person" inside.  She has been tested and taunted and vilified… and she’s still here.  To view her run for the Presidency as an act of vigilantism or a as desire to return or maintain a toxic political climate is insane.

Back in 2004, I had about 15-20 seconds with Hillary Clinton during a book signing (here in Arizona) for a Living History.  While I had not had the chance to read the book prior to the signing, I considered myself somewhat of a "fan," but thinking it was just cool to meet a former First Lady and current Senator.  That said, I totally admit to being scared to meet her, not in an "oooh famous person" way, but in a she’s going to be cold, distant, unfriendly, etc.  I half expected the bookstore to be chilled by her mere presence.

It could not have been more different.  Despite there being 100 or so people into the signing line, she quite warmly looked up to me (in the eye) giving me a friendly and enthusiastic "Hello" and stuck out her hand to shake mine… before I got too far away from the table I managed to tell her "I hope you give us a chance to vote for you someday"… 

She chuckled back "Oh! Thank You!" almost as if the thought had never entered her head.  While we all knew (Clinton included), that she would someday run for the highest office in the land, I left with a warm, authentic, and confident first impression of Hillary Clinton that has lasted to this day.

This coming Tuesday, I proudly plan to keep my word to her.