Do Ken Cuccinelli’s supporters honestly think he can win with the same coalition of voters as Mark Early and Jerry Kilgore? I certainly don’t.

The simple fact is that if all of our Republican candidates in 2009 do not win the votes, and yes the financial support, of people in the Commonwealth who supported and voted for Warner and Kaine, we are going to lose again.

Speculation over McCain’s and Obama’s potential Vice Presidential picks appears to be reaching critical mass these days.  At the center of the chattering class’ favorite parlor game are two guys who seem to have a lot in common in addition to their first name: Tim Pawlenty and Tim Kaine.

Barack Obama is his party’s presumptive nominee for President because he was the first and the loudest candidate to oppose the War in Iraq.  That issue is the single greatest factor precipitating Obama’s rocket-like ascent within the Democratic Party. Unfortunately for America, it becomes more and more apparent with each passing day that not only does Barack Obama have no idea what should be done in Iraq, even more concerning is the fact that he clearly doesn’t care.

Here are a couple interesting tidbits from a recent ABC News article about the importance of “shared time” to keeping marriages together:

[University of Denver researcher Howard] Markman took a less scientific approach in a solo study he began in the early 1990s of cities with major league baseball teams; he found those cities had a 28 percent lower divorce rate than cities that didn’t have teams but had expressed interest in one.

Further:

Scarborough Sports Marketing of New York, which collects consumer information about professional sports, found that more than 3.9 million married women attended a major-league [baseball] game from August 2006 through September 2007, compared with 2.5 million for professional basketball, football and hockey combined.

Just a couple more reasons why baseball is the most romantic of all sports.

Over the past several weeks, the McCain campaign has been working hard to attempt to locate the weakness in Barack Obama’s seamless teflon packaging.  Through various sources, McCain and his surrogates have pointed out Obama’s inexperience, his liberalism, his elitism, his verbal gaffes, and his flip-flops on a variety of policy positions.  To date, none of these lines of attack has proved effective. 

Indeed, should the McCain campaign continue this multi-pronged approach to chipping away at Obama’s armor, I suspect that it will be a very long and frustrating summer for Team McCain.  But there is another way.

In his quest for the Democratic nomination for President, Barack Obama made the issue of judgment a centerpiece of his campaign.  He used his early opposition of the Iraq War as a skewer upon which to hoist his rivals and counter their clear advantage in experience and tenure in public office.

Unfortunately for Obama, as we move towards the general election and discover more and more about the Young Senator from Illinois, there is much evidence emerging that should bring his judgment into question.

Today’s conviction of Obama’s longtime friend Tony Rezko on 16 counts related to corruption of public officials is just the latest example of a string of questionable relationships.

I agree with my friend Chris Beer that many of McCain’s recent statements seem to create the impression that he is actively considering a one-term Presidency.  In fact, McCain advisor Mark Salter essentially stated as much to Marc Ambinder earlier this week.   

I explored this possibility just last month in relation to McCain’s ‘2013′ ad.

Those are probably the last words you expected to read on a conservative blog on the day Barack Obama essentially became the Democratic Party’s nominee for President.  However, as Rich Lowry has already noted, from a historical perspective it is certainly a day we can all be proud of when a black man can be one of the last two standing for the highest office in the land.

But now the election begins in earnest and identity politics should be left in the rear-view mirror.

Watching Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC.

Lord Stanley’s Cup and those guys with the white gloves will be in the building tonight as the Detroit Red Wings endeavor to hoist their 11 Championship to the rafters.

As the dust settles on an exciting and entertaining weekend in Richmond, I have just a few thoughts on what we witnessed this past weekend and what me might expect moving forward.

So sayeth Quin Hillyer of the American Spectator today.  Here’s the money quote:

John McCain is not a conservative champion. But he deeply believes, and strongly champions, many conservative principles, many Goldwaterite principles. We certainly could do worse than to be stuck with him as our own, infuriating, headstrong, bullying, honor-obsessed, indefatigable, and sometimes downright inspirational SOB.

Read the whole thing and tell me what you think.

Presidential campaigns are always chock full of references to previous Chief Executives, especially those who were successful.  From Democratic claims to the Kennedy legacy to Republican invocations of Ronald Reagan, we have become used to these kind of comparisons.  This year, however, there seems to be quite a bit more than usual talk about our Thirty-Fourth President, the “Man from Abilene” himself, Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower.

A friend points me to this blog post by George Packer following up on his recent article in the New Yorker entitled ”The Fall of Conservatism.”  On one hand, I agree that pointing to similar problems among liberals does nothing to address the issues raised. However, Packer’s new comments seem equally off-focus because he appears to put greater stock in the views of bitter and disgruntled conservatives like Andrew Sullivan than in those actively working to revive the cause. In any case, the comments do spur me to belatedly address a related issue.

Ok, so he may not be from Indiana, but over at NRO’s Media Blog, they at least seem to think Indy’s a Republican for the following reasons:

1. He’s a University of Chicago guy
2. Calls Russians “Reds”
3. Q: “Any last words, Dr. Jones?” A: “I like Ike.”

Watch out for the next film: Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Zombie Hippies.

The AP is reporting that the Republican Presidential nominee-in-waiting will be hosting a party at his ”compound” in Arizona with some familiar names on the guest list.  Among the invitees are:

• Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
• Florida Governor Charlie Crist
• Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
• Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman
• South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham

To quote a famous saying, “veeeeery eeenteresting.” I also hear that after dinner they are planning to go around the neighborhood putting Cherry Bombs in people’s mailboxes.

(H/T: HotAir.com)