Wow Davidson creamed Gourley now we just have to wait for the votes tommorow. The debate was a hands down win for Davidson and added momentum to his surging campaign. High placed sources in the Davidson campaign were very upbeat about their prospects tommoroow.

UPDATE: rumor is circulationg about a possible credentials meeting taking place in the middle of the night.

UPDATE: another high placed source confirmed rumors circulating about continued attemp to steal missouri’s delegates from davidson

According to sources, the debate rules have been changed by the Gourley folks as they are still trying to find ways out of the debate. Team Gourley is clearly scared and looking for a way to pull out at things are clearly closer than they ever imagined.

The details are basically that as originally negotiated each team would submit 3 questions with questioners from the campaign. Now the moderator (Eric Hoplin) would pick 3 out of 6 questions to ask, and Eric would have the authority to pick these questions.

On another note, Team Gourley is clearly scared to death and is lying through their teeth about a lot of the different tings. The Davidson folks are realy up beat.

This one is going to come down to the wire and should be one to watch.

I am sure this will be the first of many updates, but a few observations from the convention (pictures coming soon).

1. Tom DeLay - I know now he’s a rock star cause the Dims have been hatin’ on him, but is anyone else slightly concerned with his ties to Reed & Abramhoff?

2. Mike Pence - Wow he rocks! His speech was about how we need to be men and women of integrity FIRST and then policy and politics. Pence ‘08!

3. Gourley-Davidson - What a freak show. I know no other word to describe this event. I’ve also heard that there are a lot more delegates in play then people originally thought.

INSIGHTS:
- Pennsylvania still Davidson (I ran into Nick, the new state chair, with his Davidson sticker he still was clearly a Davidson guy)

- Missouri also still Davidson (The Mo state chair resigned myteriously yesterday and at least three of the Mo delegates are still solidly Davidson)

It is about time that the Bush Administration answer the growing chorus of opposition to the Iraq War in the United States Congress. Of course the grumblings have been coming from the usual liberal suspects, but recently, as I have written on this blog, more and more Republican members (even some conservatives) have begun to criticize the administration’s efforts in Iraq. This is incredibly troubling, as this is precisely how we were defeated in Vietnam (It wasn’t just Walter Kronkite’s fault as conventional wisdom holds). First we lost Congress, then the American people, and the war was ultimately lost. The Bush Administration cannot and will not let this happen. They are finally back on the offensive, and they are not backing down. This is the mark of true leadership. They stick to their principles even in dark times, when they are unpopular and the subject of widespread derision. But history will have the final word, and when it does, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al. will have been right.

Yesterday Cheney defended his much chided statement that the Iraqi insurgency was in “its last throes”: “We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan. We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution. We will defeat that insurgency, and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story.” Boom! Talk about guts…

Rumsfeld also took a beating yesterday from disgruntled Senators on Capitol Hill. The whole hearing was absolutely brutal - nearly every exchange was bitter and excessively aggressive. But Rumsfeld held his ground. Teddy Kennedy, nearly incoherent, actually reached a new low: “There have been a series of gross errors and mistakes. Those were on your watch. … In baseball, it’s three strikes, you’re out. What is it for the secretary of defense?”"Isn’t it time for you to resign?”

Sen. Bobby “Sheets” Byrd also asked Rumsfeld “to get off his high horse.”

Unbelievable. Exchanges like these must remind us that we face TWO enemies in the war on terror. The murderous Islamists in the Middle East and the extremist liberals at home. Kennedy, Durbin, Schumer, Kerry, Biden are not on OUR team. They want us to lose. If we succeed in Iraq and the greater war on terror, their misguided, “blame America first” worldview will be shattered. The Vietnam Syndrome and liberal internationalism will be officially dead. The stakes are high, and both of our enemies know it. The Bush Administration is engaged in an epic battle here, and thankfully, they don’t appear to be giving any ground.