While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are battling it out in Texas and Ohio, the de facto Republican nominee decided to take the weekend off the campaign trail to spend with a selected group of supporters (Pawlenty, Huntsman, Lieberman, Martinez, Graham, Gramm, Lott, etc. [Crist had to cancel at the last minute, apparently]) , aides, and reporters. It sounds like a really fun time. McCain’s ribs sound absolutely amazing too. It’s too bad that video or pictures were the only thing banned from the event, I would’ve like to see McCain “sporting jeans and a sleeveless denim jacket over a sweatshirt with a silkscreened family picture.” I just can’t picture that for the life of me.
So far, 7 of the reporters have stories up about today’s festivities, read them all:
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:38 am
Hello, LJ-
Great job you’ve done there, assembling the links – thanks…
My two cents:
It’s really good for the candidate to have an opportunity for some down time (if spending time with reporters, even at home, even qualifies as genuine down time). He has a grueling march ahead of him till November 4. The unsettled state of the Democratic race certainly helps him as well – he’s known he’s the nominee since the wee hours of Feb 5-6… time to recharge his batteries for the marathon to come…
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 am
I am glad we finally got an invite list, which I did not find that impressive. Why does McCain continue to associate with closet homosexuals? This isn’t about bigotry but politics: closeted gays are vulnerable to being outed or blackmailed. And although I know he likes to keep Phil Gramm and Jack Kemp around for their economic messages, maybe he could join us in the 21st century. Aren’t they both near McCain’s age?
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:37 am
LJ, I read each of the accounts and I read no mention of Pawlenty being there. I believe you that he was, I just didn’t read it.
Assuming he was there, he seemed to be the only prospective veep candidate in attendance. Interesting.
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:42 am
Gov Huntsman was also there.
We need a thread about Clinton swiftboating John McCain. Clinton surrogate Gloria Steinem in Texas suggested McCain got himself shot down and is unfit to be president. The GOP needs to put a stop to this now!
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:13 am
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2008/03/democrats_attack_mccains_military_experience/
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:31 am
Obama’s friend, Hugo Chavez, could be an election issue:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8V5H5TG1&show_article=1
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:31 am
He probably needs to stop saying things like “It keeps me moving” if he hopes to continue neutralizing the age issue.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Gary,
Good point. I should have been clearer in my post. Apparently Saturday was the real get together with his chief elected supporters, including Pawlenty. And Sunday was the grill session with reporters and aides (and a few supporters stuck around, like Huntsman).
See here: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/a_sedona_stop_for_mccain_to_sa.html
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 am
LJ,
Those ribs won’t taste so good when McCain loses Texas cause he spent the weekend goofing off while Huck was out campaigning.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
9, doesn’t matter if he lost Texas, its still very unlikely he loses the nomintation.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Even if McCain loses Texas (There is a 90 percent chance he won’t) he is going to win OH, RI and VT – and Huck has pretty much run out of southern states.
It’s over.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Pretty funny Dowd column.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/opinion/02dowd.html?em&ex=1204693200&en=9695e14b2ffccd1a&ei=5087
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
if mccain lost texas it would make him look VERY stupid and it would only be yet one more stumble that has been in general election kick off.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
McCain will not lose Texas folks, you guys need to get off the Kool-Aid. Average Poll’s have him winning Texas by over 20 Points, the only question coming out of Texas is will McCain pick up all the delegates? B/c as of right now he is leading in EVERY part of the state of Texas, including his HUGE leads in Dallas and Houston where most of the delegates come from b/c that area is so large. McCain will not lose Texas my friends.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
McCain is campaigning in East Texas today(Mon)and is ahead of Huckabee by double digits in Texas according to the local polls. I have not seen any tv commercials by either Huckabee or McCain. There are tons of commercials for Obama and a few for Hillary. I am in Tyler, TX now.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Of the last 18 polls in Texas listed at RCP, 17 have had McCain at 50% or more. It’s possible he won’t get 50% (most have him just a bit over, and the RCP average is 53.2, but the likelihood that he loses is real slim.
If he gets 50%+, he’ll have about 1240-1250 delegates Wednesday morning, if he’s at 49.9 in Texas, he’ll have about 1215-1220. Either way, comfortably over 1191.
What do you want to bet that Huckabee moves the goalposts? He’ll say, “But those aren’t all PLEDGED delegates, so it still isn’t over.”
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Huck is closing a bit though. Plus the Jesusland network will probably help him close a little better than polling suggests. I suspect McCain wins by about 12 points in TX, by about 25 in OH, by 40+ in RI and by 50+ in VT.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I was very puzzled when Governor Huntsman endorsed John McCain over Mitt Romney. I see now that it is because Huntsman and McCain are friends.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
[...] Among our friends at Race42008.com, LJ was always the most stalwart supporter of Senator McCain’s candidacy.  Yesterday, LJ put up a great post about the informal barbecue McCain hosted for his press corps in Arizona… Take a look at ”Grillin’ McCain“… [...]