On hitching your wagon to a (falling) star...

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John McCain today announced his Minnesota campaign team..

Although I applaud McCain's recent stance on the war in Iraq, it seems to me that he's doing so to position himself with those whom he needs to cozy up in order to get the nomination: the conservative grass roots faithful who will be delegates at the '08 convention.

His earlier stances have hardly been GWOT-friendly.

Additionally, McCain's recent lambasting of Rumsfeld (not to mention his earlier burning of bridges with the religious right, those who supported Bush's SCOTUS nominees and First Amendment supporters), has done nothing to burnish credentials among the conservative base. Actually, his downslide is already beginning. Unlike liberals, conservative republicans tend to have long memories.

Now it's no secret that Governor Tim Pawlenty has been setting himself up to be John McCain's bitch VP running mate for '08.

BTW--closed circuit to Pawlenty et. al.: The Minnesota grass roots activist Republicans are wayyyy more than fed up with your recent jockeying to the left. Lining up behind one of the biggest RINOs of the past decade for POTUS will do nothing to provide us with any further motivation to help you folks get elected during the next cycle.

Yes, the Minnesota State Republican Party will most definitely be in the spotlight with the convention here in '08...

But our state delegation is gonna look awful funny there with no friggen supporters!

*****UPDATE****

Andy has more about how McCain takes the conservative base for granted; and voices concerns about an independent McCain third party POTUS ticket.

Kevin Ecker has a great piece on how even rats know when to jump ship.

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