RightWave

It appears there are many others like my wife and me who moved into the “grudgingly support McCain” into the “kind of excited about the campaign” over the course of the past couple of days.  The Sarah Palin pick was an excellent one, and apparently a lot of people agree.  Not only are they happy, they’re apparently opening up their wallets to the McCain campaign:

“We raised over $4 million online” on Friday, said senior adviser Steve Schmidt, who is in charge of day-to-day campaign operations. He said the campaign had never made more than $1 million in a single day over the Internet before.

Let’s hope she proves to be as good as she seems – and McCain does’t do anything crazy.

From our good friends over at The Corner:

The Bridge to Nowhere :

Senator Obama voted for it.

Governor Palin killed the project.

Just briefly:

I thought she looked very comfortable on the stump, particularly if she really did just find out in the last couple of days.  She’s well-spoken and has the right “look.”  I remarked when she walked out on stage that she looked very much like a woman who Hollywood might cast to play a vice president in the movie.

Seems that she’s classy, conservative, strong and spunky.  Plus, she’s got a great American narrative.  From PTA leader to Vice Presidential candidate at age 40-something.  Incredible.  I have to believe that’s going to resonate with other hockey/soccer moms.

Plus the story of her little baby will break hearts across the country and bring people in to her narrative.

Won’t the Biden/Palin debate be great?  Will be interesting to see what the reaction is.

By the way – is anyone talking about the Obama speech from yesterday?

Thoughts?

Sarah the Baracuda will be the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican ticket.

Carl Cameron just confirms with senior campaign official – apparently not random GOP source, but rather official McCain campaign confirmation.

They’re apparently just a few minutes from appearing together.

Fox Producer is giving update on this mystery flight:

Flight left earlier yesterday from Anchorage and flew to Flagstaff, AZ (near McCain’s home) with a fueling stop in Seattle.  Then, late last night flew from Flagstaff (with a fuel stop) to Middletown, Ohio.

Another flight late last night flew direct from Anchorage to Middletown, Ohio without a stop.  Minivans (apparently the same ones) met both planes at the airport.

That evidence would point back to Palin.

UPDATE: FOX NEWS REPORTS SOURCES CONFIRM PALIN. No official word from the campaign, but it’s from “high-level campaign sources backstage at the Dayton event.”  However, they have not seen Palin at the event.

Just heard from a “friend of a friend” close to the campaign that it’s Tom Ridge.

The speculation circus continues…

I continue to be incredibly impressed with the McCain campaign’s execution.

As a side note – a very smart friend of mine just suggested a dream GOP ticket (for the future, obviously not this time around): Jindal-Palin.  How awesome would that be??

CNBC says it’s Palin.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a self-styled “hockey mom” who has only been governor for a little over a year, is GOP Presidential candidate John McCain’s choice for Vice President, CNBC has learned.

According to a Republican strategist, Palin is the nominee, though McCain’s campaign has not comfirmed this.

Krauthammer mentions Fred Thompson as a good candidate.  He’s just postulating, though, not saying he thinks it will be.

For what it’s worth, Governor Palin’s spokesperson is standing by her schedule that she’s to attend a fair in Anchorage today. (Fox just re-confirmed with the spokesperson, apparently, after the ABC News story linked in a previous post here.)

One other random thought, and perhaps I’m reading into news banners too much, but Headline News’ ticker says “Romney not in Dayton; Pawlenty Confirms He Wasn’t Asked.”  Pawlenty himself, it seems, has confirmed he’s not the choice.  The Romney news is from “sources close to the former governor.”  Is there a chance it’s still Romney?  He has a plane and it’s not that far to fly from Boston to Dayton.  It’s conceivable he could still be there.

Probably not, but just a thought.

This is fun, no?

Of course, at this point, this is ALL crazy speculation.  But, Fox just ran an interesting clip from the Rick Warren interview of McCain naming Meg Whitman as one of the three people he trusts most.

Would be an out of the box pick.  Do we know anything about her?

I guess, since Romney’s out, I’m hoping it’s Palin.

Still no official word.  Still very impressed the McCain camp has kept this under wraps.  Impressive.

This is scary.

And this.