From Congressional Quarterly, vice-presidential pick brackets for politics geeks!

Who should be John McCain’s running mate? In our own version of the March Madness brackets, our team of political experts selected 32 possible nominees. We took into account many of the factors McCain will likely consider, such as national prominence, geographical and ideological balance, fundraising prowess, political strengths and fatal flaws. Now it’s up to you to decide who will advance to face each other in the next round. The winner will be revealed May 22. You’ll have a chance to weigh in on the Democratic ticket once the nominee is set.

Click to fill out a bracket, and you can also see how they came up with the picks (video).

UPDATE: If you can’t get enough of the speculation about McCain’s VP pick (which I can’t imagine will come before the Dems pick theirs), you can follow all the buzz at VP Watch, a blog run by the Club for Growth. Here’s a VP poll at ABC News found at VP Watch.

Found a bit of vid of Dubya at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, but, it doesn’t include this bit, unless you can get the cBS News one on the page I link below to work. I’ve had no luck

President George W. Bush poked fun at his potential successors, expressing surprise that none of them were in the audience at the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner.

“Senator McCain’s not here,” Bush said of Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain. “He probably wanted to distance himself from me a little bit. You know, he’s not alone. Jenna’s moving out too.”

Bush then referred to scandals that have dogged the campaigns of the two remaining Democratic candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, in explaining their absence: “Hillary Clinton couldn’t get in because of sniper fire and Senator Obama’s at church.”

Ok, ok, the headline is actually “GOP Now Sees Obama As Liability For Ticket,” but, sheesh, how did this possibly make it in to the NY Times? I have a little theory that the editor get drunk big time on Friday nights, so the actual reporters are free to write actual journalistic articles, as I have seen many times regarding good news from Iraq, but, sheesh! this is still the NY Times!

Senator Barack “no middle name” Obama is starring in a growing number of campaign commercials, but the latest batch is being underwritten by Republicans.

In a sign that the racial, class and values issues simmering in the presidential campaign could spread into the larger political arena, Republican groups are turning recent bumps in Mr. Obama’s road — notably his comment that small-town Americans “cling” to guns and religion out of bitterness and a fiery speech by his former minister in which he condemned the United States — into attacks against Democrats down the ticket.

Note: those racial issues are on the Democrat side, not the GOP side. We couldn’t care less about color or race, just, as Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, the content of one’s character, and what their policies are.

“The public, week by week, is becoming more familiar with his big-government, far-left vision for America,” said Ed Patru, a spokesman for Freedom’s Watch, an advocacy organization that is portraying Mr. Obama as ultraliberal in an advertisement running in Louisiana before a special election for a House seat.

“There were times when Republicans reacted with just horror that he would lead the ticket,” said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst. “Now there is not the sense of him being invulnerable, the magic bullet. I think there has been a major change.”

Maybe those in the big circles were worried, but, Mr. Hope And Change and, does he have anything else?, was a political neophyte who sounded good, which might play in Democrat elections, but not in a general election against a seasoned veteran.

Democrats say Republicans are going to vilify either Democratic contender and distort his or her record in an effort to weaken the nominee and drag down fellow Democrats.

They can say all they want, but, there is no need to distort Obama’s record: he has none, other then voting present. And saying he will capitulate to rogue nations, raise the hell out of taxes, and attempt to reduce the USA to the United Socialist States of America..

I’ll remember this for when it is McCain vs. the Obamessiah for the general election, and see if WRAL rejects any of the hard left commercials (of course, to be honest, about the only time I turn on any of the networks around here - WRAL is cBS - is when I watch Lost, which is on ABC, of course, so, it will be hard to tell)

At least one North Carolina TV station is refusing to air the N.C. Republican Party’s ad about Sen. Barack Obama’s former minister.

A spokesman for WRAL-TV in Raleigh said the station will not show the ad. A spokesman for another Triangle station, WTVD, said it had not been asked to air the ad but would have reservations about doing so.

The ad points out that Democratic gubernatorial candidates Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore have endorsed Obama. It calls Obama too “extreme” because of his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and implies that Obama heard Wright’s controversial sermons.

God forbid the NC GOP points out the reality about Barack “no middle name” Obama. Can’t have that!

Katy from Katy’s Conservative Corner has a note to the RNC: stay out of our business! And she is correct. Especially since the national GOP is way to wimpy and afraid of the Dhimmicrats.

The Swamp is reporting that the ad will be pulled by the NC GOP. Send the NC GOP an email (email@ncgop.org) telling them not to give in.

Here is the ad again

Glad to see someone in the Republican Party growing a set (via Sister Toldjah and Memeorandum)

Per the RNC, the national leadership of the Republican Party has been in contact this morning with the North Carolina GOP, urging them to refrain from running the “Extreme” ad. The party says that the content of the anti-Obama ad, which references the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is “not appropriate” and “unhelpful.”

The NC GOP is an independent organization not bound to the recommendations of the national party. A spokesman from the NC party declined to comment on any conversations between the RNC and the North Carolina team.

The ad?

Press release by Sue Myrick (R-NC)

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Rep. Sue Myrick (NC-9) called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to revoke former President Jimmy Carter’s passport. This is in response to the former President traveling to Syria to meet with Hamas, an organization officially designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“Former President Carter has acted in contradiction of international agreements to isolate Hamas. He has acted in defiance of both United States policy and international policy. His actions reward terrorists, lend support, and provide legitimacy to their belief that violence will eventually get them what they want,” said Rep. Myrick.

After Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections the Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) called on Hamas to renounce terror, recognize Israel and recognize the previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel as they seek an agreement to make peace. Hamas has categorically rejected these three conditions for more than two years.

Congress granted the Secretary of State the power to grant and verify passports. In 1981, the United States Supreme Court held in the case of Haig v. Agee that the Secretary of State has the implied power to revoke passports as well (453 U.S. 280).

Democrats will amp up the Seething Scale to a 10 if Rice tries it. Which is another reason she should do it. Then the story will be all over the news, and people will see Democrats for the terrorist supporters they really are.

Hot Air has video.

Photo via Wuzzadem via Michelle M.

I don’t care who you are, this is funny.

From the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Dinner, 4/16/08.

A new vid from the RNC

From the RNC:

WASHINGTON – Today the RNC released a new Web video, titled “Politics vs. Petraeus.” The video highlights Senators Clinton and Obama’s politicization of the War on Terror and complete disregard for the facts and the warnings made by General David Petraeus during his last congressional hearing on September 11, 2007.

After consistently promising to “always listen to our commanders on the ground,” Barack Obama has blatantly ignored Gen. Petraeus’ recommendations and pledged to enact an immediate and dangerous withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq if elected President. And despite warnings from Gen. Petraeus that “a premature drawdown of our forces would likely have devastating consequences,” Senator Clinton has promised to begin a precipitous withdrawal of American troops within 60 days.

Nice to see them getting out in front of the Democrats on this one. Some TV commercials would have been nice, though.

John McCain’s blogger outreach guy, Patrick Hynes (originally from Ankle Biting Pundits), has made a debut on the official McCain blog. Stop in and say hello after you read “Biography as character witness.”

Congratulations to Patrick for the well-deserved recognition in the Washington Times today, too!

Even as talk radio was brutalizing Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential primaries, conservative bloggers reached a respectful truce with the Arizona senator over touchy issues and gave him what the campaign called a “tremendous positive psychological” boost.

The main reason: Mr. McCain’s blogger outreach, the most extensive of any presidential campaign in either party, helped keep him afloat in the dark days last summer when the major press was sizing up his campaign grave. During those times, Mr. McCain got attention and digital ink from the bloggers he invited to biweekly conference calls, and got a chance to talk policy.

I’ve always said it was Hynes whom I credit for bringing me around, just as the article says. His impact on this election has been immense, and I expect it will serve him well in the future. I’ll write more about this later. For now, go read.

Patrick Ruffini

My friend Justin Hart (a Romney supporter from day one) says about Mitt campaigning for John McCain,

He has his eye on the real issue… President Obama or Clinton would be very, very bad.

Governor Romney is a good man, and knows what’s at stake in this election. His support will be crucial–and much appreciated.