But I Brought a Note from My Campaign Manager

There is a new report out that recounts the votes missed by current members of Congress. Pundits have taken note of the presidential contenders who have missed votes. Please disregard the person at the top of the list, Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), he's been a little busy not dying.

Herewith is the list of senators who have missed votes and are also seeking their party's nomination for president.

• Sam Brownback (R-KS) - 22 votes missed (42.3%)
• Joseph Biden (D-DE) - 12 votes missed (23.1%)
• Chuck Hagel (R-NE) - 9 votes missed (17.3%)
• Christopher Dodd (D-CT) - 8 votes missed (15.4%)
• John McCain (R-AZ) - 5 votes missed (9.6%)
• Hillary Clinton (D-NY) - 2 votes missed (3.8%)
• Barack Obama (D-IL) - 0 votes missed!

Vilsack Gets Sacked

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has withdrawn from the 2008 Presidential Race, a mere 15 weeks after getting into it. Vilsack announced the day after the 2006 midterm elections and brought the best "emotional" story to the race. However, he was always viewed as a underdog, despite an impressive resume and most importantly, executive experience. As most pundits will tell you there is a reason the past four of five presidents have been governors.

Vilsack's withdrawal could be good for Bill Richardson of New Mexico, one of the few other governors in the race and also an impressive resume. I believe Richardson will do well if he can survive the front runner shuffle being conducted by the Senator from Illinois and the Senator from New York.

Stay tuned. There's still a long way to go and lots more time for people to stumble.

President John McCain?

The current issue of Washingtonian Magazine (February 2007) has a fictional article in it on how John McCain becomes president in 2008. It was a fascinating read with some interesting factual stingers, most notably how Joe Biden can't seem to keep his foot out of his mouth (articulate, indeed!).

The article describes how the Democrats go into their convention deadlocked with John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all with large numbers of delegates but not enough to capture the nomination. Clinton finally releases her delegates to Edwards after securing a promise that he will pick Obama as his running mate. Clinton returns to the Senate and a place in history.

McCain has wrested the nomination away from Rudy Giuliani and asked Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to run as his vice president. The general election race is on. On October 31, a terrorist attack strikes in St. Louis and it reminds the nation that Edwards and Obama may not be ready. McCain wins the election a week later.

The article uses actual statements from McCain and weaves an impressive story and goes to show how entertaining the next two years are going to be. But I still think that McCain will not be the Republican nominee, regardless of what happens.