Waukesha carnival 11-2-2008

This is the fortieth edition. Let’s get to it.

Election day is Tuesday so let’s start locally.

Senator Mary Lazich (aide Kevin Fischer?) posts at Conservatively Speaking that this might be a very tough winter. Why? Salt shortage.

Why the shortage? In a nutshell, demand is high, supplies are down, and costs are up. The Post- Crescent reports, “Road salt prices now range as high as $250 per ton in the upper Midwest, and some would-be buyers are finding it hard to come by at any price.” It could have been worse, but Wisconsin, unlike some other states, put in bids for road salt early.

I say let’s go after Big Salt. Call for hearings, questions them in the glare of public and tax their windfall profits. That’ll teach them.

Jeff at Five Points Blog notes the end of the season at Waukesha Farmer’s Market. He notes increased attendance and speculates on the reasons.

JJ Gravelle insists (sort of, his blog is The Daily Scoff, after all.) that there is no bias at Milwaukee’s paper.

Concernedcitizen gives us his thoughts on the Waukesha School District budget at Skeptics Anonymous. BTW, did you know that all but a couple of the school board members have endorsed Ruth Page Jones? I thought it was interesting.

Brian Fraley at Fraley’s Daily Takes notes another edition of WisPolitics: The Show.

Now to the national stage.

Assuming McCain loses (which I don’t, yet), Dad29 nixes the idea that Mitt Romney might be the savior of the Republican Party. I second that.

Cindy Kilkenny had an e-mail exchange with Cory the Well Driller. You can read it all at Fairly Conservative.

Alexander calls the election at Hobo Springs. Well, for president and the 97th Wisconsin. Scott Feldstein makes his presidential prediction also.

Posting at Practically Speaking, Kyle Prast says that the ads and mailings implies the presidential race is closer than we think.

On the subject of mailings, James Wigderson wonders at Wigderson’s Library & Pub why the Wisconsin GOP is mailing so many pieces on behalf of McCain. Me, too. My wife has gotten like 8 or 9 in the last couple of weeks; five in one day.

Silent E speaks posts another video that shows you shouldn’t try to spin your way past Megyn Kelly at FOXNews.

That it for this week. You can always submit your post to the next edition by using our this submission form or put a comment in the comments. Past posts and future editions here.

Will McCain ask Mitt Romney to be Vice President?

Redmanbluestate asks the question

I answer. Only if he loans the general election campaign as much as he loaned himself.

Romney Endorses McCain

From CBS News,

Republican campaign dropout Mitt Romney endorsed John McCain for the party’s presidential nomination and asked his national convention delegates to swing behind the likely nominee.

If, in fact, Romney’s delegates follow his recommendation, it should just about seal the nomination for McCain, depending on how you see the delegate situation playing out (I don’t think I’ve found two sources that agree on how many delegates any of the candidates have).

What happened to Mitt Romney?

Mitt Romney’s difficulties can be shown by these two pieces.

First Mark R. Levin on National Review Online goes through a litany of problems with John McCain and thinks we need to back Romney now to avoid a McCain nomination.

Then in The New York Observer, Steve Kornacki writes,

But for all of Romney’s griping, there is a certain justice in his campaign being sullied by such a disingenuous gambit. Romney, after all, has built his entire campaign on disingenuousness, wrapping himself in a language and ideology that he once told Massachusetts voters repulsed him.

So there you have it. He was the “only” conservative who could beat McCain, yet conservatives didn’t really trust him because of his flip-flops.

Romney ends his campaign

UPDATE: And now it’s official. The transcript of his speech is here and video is here. Fraley gives a good review here.

From Yahoo! News,

Mitt Romney will either suspend his presidential campaign or withdraw completely from the presidential race, The Associated Press has learned.

This would effectively give the nomination to John McCain, spin from the Huckabee and Paul camps notwithstanding.

According to the delegate count at RealClearPolitics.com, McCain has 720, Romney 279, Huckabee 194 and Paul 14.

McCain-Huckabee

The news media and the blogosphere, especially that part of the Cheddarsphere here in southeastern Wisconsin have been speculating (although some are skeptical) on some kind of deal worked out between John McCain and Mike Huckabee in that Huckabee would become McCain’s vice presidential candidate if (now when) McCain secures the Republican nomination.

It would be hard not to draw that conclusion. After Huckabee lost three consecutive races, after South Carolina, he stayed in the race. He has been polite and praising John McCain, while negative toward Mitt Romney. And then there was the West Virginia convention.

But I don’t see Huckabee as being the best match. If McCain is hoping to offer an olive branch to listeners/readers/followers of Limbaugh-Coulter-Glenn Beck, I don’t think Huckabee has too great a standing with them either. He might help with social conservatives (evangelicals, et al.).

McCain’s age will force him to look for a younger person that could be seen as stepping into the Presidency (e.g., NOT Dan Quayle). The presence of Obama, Clinton or both on the Democratic ticket will bring pressure to select a woman or an African American or both (Condi Rice, anyone?). And there is the regional balance, seemingly less important in McCain’s case since he’s done well in the NE and South.

Fred Thompson would be an obvious choice. Would Fred take it? I doubt it, but stranger things have happened this cycle. Fred is a friend of McCain and might do it for the good of the party. Fred would appeal to all three conservative factions (fiscal, social and security).

But Fred’s not young.

Rice is connected with the administration and I don’t think McCain will go for anyone with connections to this administration.

Fred Dooley has predicted Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi. He’s youngish (60), conservative like Thompson, and has worked with Democrats in Mississippi.

There is also Romney, although it would be hard to imagine these two getting together now. But if Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan could almost do it, I suppose anything is possible, especially in politics.

Other candidates are possible, Hunter or Tancredo. They might help McCain in the mountain west, where Romney won on Tuesday.

Who else is there? Or is there no one who would save this ticket from a revolt on the right?