The Luntz focus group picked up the decisive Palin win, and Luntz is predicting a move towards McCain in the polls as a result. McCain will have to take on the issue of the origins of the subprime crisis to capitalize on this opening, and Sarah needs to be out on talk radio every day from here on out. She is back as the GOP's best weapon in Election '08.
Speculation swirled Tuesday that McCain might name his vice presidential partner within the next few days - right in the middle of Barack Obama's overseas tour.
McCain aides were not helping tamp down the speculation with their comments, often made late in the afternoon, of "no announcement today."
But what about tomorrow? Or where? On Tuesday, McCain campaigned in New Hampshire, not all that far from a lakeside summer home of vanquished GOP rival Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Romney was nowhere to be seen. Well, it wasn't really that close to his lakeside home.
One member of the audience told McCain he seemed like a very "forgiving" man. "Have you forgiven Mitt Romney?" he asked the senator.
Amid laughter, McCain said, "Mitt has been of tremendous help to my campaign. ... He does a better job for me than he did for himself."
—My Way News
The most-mentioned potential running mates — former Republican candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty — are all men. Yet no clear front-runner has emerged, and there are at least three women McCain might select to fill out the ticket. All three would mark a symbolic turn away from Vice President Dick Cheney, the ultimate D.C. old-boys-club insider.
—Politico
From US News and World Report:
1. The son of immigrants from India's Punjab state, Jindal made history when he became the first U.S. governor with roots in India.
2. Born Piyush Jindal in Baton Rouge in 1971, he gave himself the nickname Bobby—after the youngest son on The Brady Bunch—when he was 4.
3. Raised a Hindu, Jindal converted to Catholicism as a teenager. As a young convert, he wrote of the emotional and intellectual struggles of his spiritual journey in several articles that were published in the New Oxford Review, a Catholic magazine.
4. Jindal graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1987. He attended Brown University, graduating with honors in biology and public policy. He turned down admissions to medical and law schools at Harvard and Yale to attend Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar.
5. While attending Oxford, Jindal contemplated joining the priesthood. He ultimately decided that it was not for him.
6. In 2006, Jindal and his wife, Supriya, delivered their third child at home. Barely able to call 911 before the delivery, Jindal received a nurse's coaching by phone. Just as he was completing the umbilical cord procedure with a shoestring, paramedics arrived. The Jindals have a daughter and two sons.
7. Before he turned 30, Jindal headed Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals and became president of the University of Louisiana System. He served in the Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush and was executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare in the late '90s. Prior to public service, Jindal worked for the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
8. In 2003, Gov. Mike Foster, who was finishing his second consecutive term and therefore could not run again, encouraged Jindal to run for governor. Defeated by Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Jindal's first bid for governor was unsuccessful.
9. In 2004, he sought the congressional seat from Louisiana's First District. He won with a whopping 78 percent of the vote and was re-elected in 2006 with almost 90 percent.
10. In 2007, Jindal ran for governor again and won. The victory was largely attributed to old-fashioned politicking, which included Jindal "giving testimony" in Pentecostal and Baptist churches in rural and remote sections of Louisiana.
