I know what you are thinking. Immigration, campaign finance, etc. The man has a whole host of bad policy ideas. It is probably just not possible at this point for him to repair the damage he has done with conservative voters, and conservatives should be very wary of considering him as the nominee.

That said, I think this video is very powerful testimony of why McCain, while he would not be a great President, is a great American.

Now, along comes the Republicans greatest attempted power grab yet. They are asking California voters next June to change the way the state’s electoral votes are allocated – from a winner-take-all system to a congressional-district-by-congressional-district system.

Democrats have been carrying California in recent elections. Even if they were to carry the state in 2008, Republicans would get about 20 electoral votes under these new rules.

On the surface this sounds reasonable – award electoral votes to whichever party carries a particular congressional district. It might be reasonable if it didn’t constitute unilateral disarmament by the Democratic Party.

Politico

Setting aside the former Congressman’s unabashed hypocrisy and bias, I do agree with him that the GOP in California is trying to pull a fast one.  Having California switch from a winner take all system to awarding electoral votes by Congressional district would be damning to the Electoral College.

Currently, Maine and Nebraska have this system and have had it for quite some time.  Nobody has ever really made a fuss about it, probably because they receive a small amount of votes and the entire state in both cases is generally slanted towards one party anyhow.  Throwing California into the mix, however, could throw an election and you are going to have an onslaught of states racing to change their systems as well.  It will be no different than the muddle of primary moves going on across the country right now.

I suspect that California voters will reject this ballot initiative when they vote this fall because of the majority of Democrat voters in the state and it is the Democrat Party that gets hurt by this move.  It was attempted in Colorado a few years ago and failed there.  The Electoral College is there for a reason and they should stop trying to tamper with it.

After a long period of what some would say has been flirtatious coyness, Sen. Fred Thompson is finally formalizing his campaign over the next week starting today with his closest supporters:

Fred Dalton Thompson will tell his supporters that he is running for president today in a 4 p.m. conference call with 800 to 1,000 elected and party officials from around the country, a source close to the campaign said today.

On the call, Thompson will detail his plans for the future, which are expected to include an appearance on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” on Wednesday night — even as his rivals debate on Fox — and could be followed by a formal announcement the next day.

The confirmation of Thompson’s plans end a months-long flirtation with the public about whether the former senator and Hollywood actor would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency.

In addition to the 4 p.m. call with supporters, Thompson’s campaign will also hold a concurrent 4 p.m. call with top donors. Thompson will speak on both calls, the source said.

I think he has lost a bit of momentum as far as excitement goes, but he has remained steady in the polls and is still on top of everyone but Rudy nationally and is ahead in a few state primary polls in the south.

I think on one hand waiting has been good, because most people aren’t paying attention to primaries right now that aren’t occurring until next year (except people like us), but on the other hand with several states moving their primary dates up and up closer to Jan. 1 he will have to hit the ground running.

Two Senate Republican colleagues, including John McCain, called Wednesday for Sen. Larry Craig to resign. The White House, too, expressed disappointment in the case of the Idaho Republican caught in a men’s room undercover police operation. Arizona Sen. McCain and Norm Coleman of Minnesota, the state where Craig was arrested, became the first senators to join Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., urging Craig’s resignation.

McCain told CNN the decision was Craig’s to make, “but my opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn’t serve. That’s not a moral stand. That’s not a holier-than-thou. It’s just a factual situation.”

“I think he should resign,” McCain said.

Breitbart

It’s not often I find myself seeing eye to eye with Senator McCain, but on this we agree.  Craig should resign.  The man pleaded guilty and was convicted of a crime, hence he is not fit to continue in public office.  For him to stay puts another black eye on an already beaten and battered Republican Party.

Additionally, I am disgusted by the actions of the Idaho GOP:

The Idaho Republican Party took a measured, wait-and-see stance while Democrats remained mum, content to let Republicans sort through the fallout. The GOP’s biggest names reminded voters of Craig’s tenure in the Senate and his powerful seat on the Appropriations Committee.

So in other words, the State party is telling their followers to tolerate Craig’s criminal indiscretions because he brings home the bacon and buys their votes?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Hillary Clinton isn’t the biggest threat the Republicans face next year.  The Republicans largest obstacle is the Republicans.

Okay, not quite, at least not yet.  Wyoming Republicans have decided to hold their caucuses on January 5.   Iowa and New Hampshire are certain to respond, with both states now likely to move into December.  At this rate, we’re going to have a Republican nominee before we have a National Champion (please God, not that school out west again).

Frankly I’m a fan of the old system.  It’s not perfect, but it allowed a few small states to vet the candidates for the rest of us.  In some ways, it wasn’t fair to the rest of us in states like New York because the nominee was decided before we got to cast our votes, but nobody can actually meet a significant portion of New York’s population.

This massive race to be first and early hurts the system in two ways.  First, it has turned the race into not much more than a fundraising contest.  Yes, there was an aspect of that before, but there was the possibility of an especially good candidate to break through.  Now that’s much more difficult, if not impossible.  Second, it will leave our candidate out there like a pinata for almost a year.  The media attention will be almost all bad on a single person rather than having candidates seen as big winners at least through March.  This is easier for the Democrats due to the liberal media, and the extra couple of months are sure to hurt the nominee, whoever that happens to be.