The Shot!

From CBS News’ Scott Conroy, on the trail with the Mitt Romney campaign:

Tom Brady he is not, but Mitt Romney can throw a pretty decent spiral.

The former Massachusetts governor took a break from preparing for tonight’s GOP presidential debate in St. Petersburg, Florida, to play a game of flag football this morning. The teams were composed of Romney’s sons, campaign staffers, political supporters and media (I played on the governor’s team).

This was not the kind of touch football game in which wide receivers casually jog out into the end zone to wait for the quarterback to lob a Hail Mary on every play. No, this was the kind of competitive battle one would expect from a family with five sons, featuring a real referee, freshly painted yard markers and a whole lot of rough and tumble play.

Over the years, the Romney brothers have taken to teasing their father for his lack of athletic prowess, but they showed the old man no mercy on the gridiron today. On one play, Governor Romney seemed to have a clear path to the end zone until his son Matt came from nowhere and yanked off a flag attached to his father’s waist.

Although Romney briefly showed off his passing skills during warm-ups, he did not take any snaps at QB during the game. Instead, he rotated between the center and wide receiver positions on the offensive end.

But the governor proved to be more of a defensive specialist, and he was not afraid to engage in some mind games with the opposing team to get the job done.

“I’m going to rush the passer, but I’m not going to set up like I am,” Romney whispered to his teammates before one play.

Governor Romney substituted himself out of the game before the end of the first half of the low scoring contest, sweat dripping from his face. It was time to hit the showers and run through the playbook for tonight.

And here’s video of it!
Have fun watching the debate at 8 on CNN!

Is Mike Huckabee the leading candidate in Iowa? Thats what a new Rasmussen survey says:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the Iowa caucus finds former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 28% of the vote, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney with 25% support, and everyone else far behind.

National frontrunner Rudy Giuliani gets just 12% of the vote in Iowa at this time while former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is the only other candidate in double digits at 11%. Given the margin of error, the challenges of determining the relatively small number of people who will participate in a caucus, and other factors, the race is far too close to call at this point in time. However, the fact that Romney is no longer the clear frontrunner in Iowa reflects a stunning change in the race.

Compared to our prior survey, the trend is unmistakable-Huckabee has gone up and just about everybody else has gone down. Huckabee’s 28% support represents a twelve point increase from a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted earlier in the month. Romney is down four points while Giuliani and Thompson are each down three points from the previous survey. John McCain is down two points and earns just 4% support. Ron Paul picked up a point and is now at the 5% level.

Forty-eight percent of Evangelical Christians support Hucakbee. That’s more than all the other candidates combined. Romney attracts 16% of the Evangelical vote.

While Senators Barack Obama and John Edwards continue to lead their Republican counterparts, in a new Zogby poll released today, Hillary Clinton, the democrat front runner, loses to all top five republican presidential contenders. In their July poll, Senator Clinton did lead McCain by two points, Guiliani by five, Thompson by six, and Romney by 10. Huckabee was not matched against Ms. Clinton in the July poll.

Some Democrats have expressed concerns about the former first lady’s electability in a race against Republicans. The survey showed Clinton not performing as well as Obama and Edwards among independents and younger voters, pollster John Zogby said.

“The questions about her electability have always been there, but as we get close this suggests that is a problem,” Zogby said.

Obama, an Illinois senator, and Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, both hold narrow leads over the Republican contenders in the hypothetical 2008 match-ups.

“It all points to a very competitive general election at a time when many people think the Democrats are going to win the White House,” Zogby said.

The poll of 9,355 people had a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point.

Mark Sanford was recently in Chester County during his 30-town “Harvest Tour”, and while reading the local newspaper account over Thanksgiving, I found this piece:

Sanford, a three-time U.S. Representative before running for governor is in his second term. He told a crowd of about 30 Chester County residents and officials that “this was it” for him in public life.

The family farm is “waiting” for Sanford, he said, though he has on occasion been mentioned as a dark-horse presidential candidate and at other times a likely vice presidential running mate for Republican candidates not from the South who might need to shore up a Southern base.

Despite that, Sanford was asked, “When are you announcing for Senate?”

Sanford shook his head and reiterated he was not going to run for public office again.

In tonights CNN Democrat Debate from Las Vegas, Sen. Hillary Clinton cited her work with Sen. Lindsey Graham on how she is capable of uniting the nation? Is this good for Sen. Graham during his re-election?

The Daily Telegraph (UK) has compiled a list of the 100 most influential conservatives and liberals in the United States and Mark Sanford made the list at 91 topping people such as Michelle Malkin, Oliver North, Henry Kissinger, and General Peter Pace.

91. MARK SANFORD
Governor of South Carolina

Potential is limitless for this 47-year-old former congressman who is a staunch Conservative with a Libertarian streak. Opposed “pork barrel” spending even when it benefited his own district and adhered to a self-imposed term limit in Congress.

Supported John McCain in 2000 but has not declared for a candidate this time. His endorsement in a key Southern state is political gold dust and he would be an attractive vice-presidential running mate for Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney.

From Jib-Jab:

Sen. Graham sent out a press release touting his cash on hand and if he’s in trouble, you certainly can’t tell it by his money.
He is one of the top Republican fundraisers this cycle and reports an astounding $4.22 million cash on hand. In the past three months he has raised close to $500k and has collected $2.25 Million since January.

There were some problems in Sen. Graham’s numbers that we covered earlier today. These reports have been amended to correct problems dating from as far back as 2002. Sen. Graham’s campaign went through an “intensive internal review of the campigns financial records which revealed numerous unauthorized disbursements made by a former employee. The unauthorized disbursements totaled approximately $215,000 over the past four years.”

Earlier this week, Senator Graham mailed a letter to supporters discussing the internal review and unauthorized disbursements made by a former employee.

“Our campaign recently conducted an intensive internal review of our financial records. During this review we uncovered numerous unauthorized disbursements made by a former employee. While we are still conducting the review, it appears the unauthorized payments for personal use totaled approximately $215,000 over a period of four years.

“Our campaign contacted the Federal Election Commission upon discovering the suspected misappropriation of funds to make them aware of the situation and to seek appropriate guidance on how to proceed,” wrote Graham. “Based on their direction, we have begun filing amended financial reports and turned the matter over to law enforcement for investigation.

“Finally, the individual in question has been terminated from employment, and we have implemented strict internal controls governing all financial activities of the campaign to ensure nothing like this ever happens again,” wrote Graham.

Someone challenging Graham may feel froggy this cycle, but they may just be jumping to their [political] death.

In the BCS Standings South Carolina is now ranked 3rd. Is this shaping up a national championship game for the Gamecocks?
It is possible. If the Cocks can pull out wins against Vanderbilt, Tennesee, Arkansas, Florida and Clemson that may the unstoppable formula for the Cocks to be in the game.
The BCS Standings
#1 South Florida
#2 LSU
#3 South Carolina
#4 Kentucky
#5 Ohio State
#5 Arizona State
#7 Boston College
#8 Virgina Tech
#8 Kansas
#10 West Virgina

Team percentages are derived by dividing a team’s actual voting points by a maximum 2850 possible points in the Harris Interactive Poll and 1575 possible points in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Six computer rankings calculated in inverse points order (25 for #1, 24 for #2, etc.) are used to determine the overall computer component. The best and worst ranking for each team is dropped, and the remaining four are added and divided by 100 (the maximum possible points) to produce a Computer Rankings Percentage. The six computer ranking providers are Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin, and Peter Wolfe. Each computer ranking accounts for schedule strength in its formula.

The BCS Average is calculated by averaging the percent totals of the Harris Interactive, USA Today Coaches and Computer polls.

Dan Hoover has this on his blog:

Joe Erwin, the Greenville advertising executive and former state Democratic Party chairman, is considering a run for U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Lindsey Graham.

Erwin confirmed this monring that (1) he’s assessing the race and all goes with a start-up candidacy, (2) he would put up the seed money to meet expenses at least for the balance of the year and (30 will decided by Nov. 1.

“I don’t want to characterize it as a ‘Draft Joe Erwin’ thing, but I am hearing it” from enouigh people to require consideration.

Erwin previously had been thought to be be considering a run for governor in 2010.

Graham’s seat is up nex year.

Interesting…