This is just so scary that the thought sends chills down my spine.

Going further, McCain even told Hayes in comments heretofore unpublished that he'd consider Cheney for an administration post.

Asked whether he'd be interested in Cheney had the vice president not already have served under Bush for two terms, McCain said: "I don't know if I would want him as vice president. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/060 8/11000.html

Hell, yeah?

Would McCain give Cheney his old job as Secretary of Defense back? The possibility just boggles my mind.

They have the same strengths? Well I guess they both share the paranoia common to NeoCons, and then there is their explosive tempers.

Obama is taking on McCain over Iraq, and specifically McCain's poor grasp of the situation in Iraq as revealed by McCain's erroneous claim that the U.S. has fewer troops in Iraq now than it did before the troop surge began. Obama is using McCain's gaffe to focus attention on McCain's abysmal record on Iraq, and undermine McCain's national security credentials in voters minds.

Here is the text of Obama's speech in Montana tonight.

"There are honest differences about how to move forward in Iraq, just like there were honest differences about whether or not we should go to war," Obama is supposed to say. "John McCain was for the invasion of Iraq; I opposed it. John McCain wants to continue George Bush's war in Iraq indefinitely; I want to end it. So there's going to be a clear choice for the American people this November."

"But that's not what John McCain's been talking about the last few days. He's been proposing a joint trip to Iraq that's nothing more than a political stunt. He's even been using it to raise a few dollars for his campaign. But it seems like Sen. McCain's a lot more interested in my travel plans than the facts, because yesterday - in his continued effort to put the best light on a failed policy - he stood up in Wisconsin and said, 'We have drawn down to pre-surge levels' in Iraq."

"That's not true, and anyone running for commander-in-chief should know better. As the saying goes, you're entitled to your own view, but not your own facts. We've got around 150,000 troops in Iraq -- 20,000 more than we had before the surge. We have plans to get down to around 140,000 later this summer -- that's still more troops than we had in Iraq before the surge. And today, Sen. McCain refused to correct his mistake. Just like George Bush, when he was presented with the truth, he just dug in and refused to admit his mistake. His campaign said it amounts to 'nitpicking.'"

"Well, I don't think tens of thousands of American troops amounts to nitpicking. Tell that to the young men and women who are serving bravely and brilliantly under our flag. Tell that to the families who have seen their loved ones fight tour after tour after tour of duty in a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged."

"It's time for a debate that's based on the truth, and I can't think of anything more important than how many Americans are in harm's way. It's time for a debate that's based on how we're going to end this war -- not a debate that's based on raising a few dollars for John McCain's campaign."

"The American people have had enough spin. Just this week, we were reminded by President Bush's own former spokesman of how it was deception -- not straight talk -- that misled the American people into war. It's time to cut through the tough talk so that we can be straight with the American people about a war that's cost us thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars without making us safer. It's time to end the political game-playing so that we can finally end this war. That's what I'll do in this campaign. And that's what I'll do when I'm President of the United States."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2 008/05/30/1086950.aspx

Obama hit McCain HARD exactly where he is perceived as being strong. If Obama can drive home this message that McCain will continue to make America less safe by stubbornly clinging to Bush's occupation in Iraq for the foreseeable future, then McCain is toast.

In researching Scott McCellan's press breifings from late in his tenure at the Bush White House I came up with this gem from April 10th 2006

...Q It has nothing to do with 9/11.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- the regime is gone. It is no longer sponsoring terrorism. It is no longer destabilizing the region. It is no longer undermining the credibility of the United Nations. It is no longer threatening the world.

And it's important that we succeed in Iraq, and that's where our focus is now. And I think people understand the importance of succeeding in Iraq, because look at the consequences if you fail. If we fail in Iraq it will embolden the enemy, it will give them a victory in the war on terrorism. It could lead to a safe-haven in Iraq. And that's why it's so important that we continue to work together to support the Iraqi people, who have shown that they want to chart their own future. And that's what we're going to continue to do.

Now note the similarities with McCain speaking about Iraq in February to CPAC (below the fold):

NBC News has just projected Baarack Obama the Winner in the Oregon Primary. We now have the results of tonight's double header.

Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton split the Oregon and Kentucky primaries Tuesday night, NBC News projected. Obama proclaimed that he had won "an absolute majority" of elected Democratic delegates and was "within reach" of the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton, of New York, coasted to victory in Kentucky, while Obama, of Illinois, handily won in Oregon. The results all but ensured that Obama would claim the largest share of the delegates elected in the long primary and caucus and season.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24714065/

This is what I and everyone else was expecting. The weekend before last I was canvassing in Oregon, and the support for Obama was overwhelming.

It's official Obama has now won the race for pledged delegates chosen in the States' primaries and caucuses. The upcoming primaries will add to Obama majority of pledged delegates. This is likely to attract more of the Super Delegates to Obama.

For Hillary to become the Nominee would mean that the Super Delegates would have to vote contrary to the decision rendered in the Democratic Primaries and Caucuses. If you think that the Super Delegates will see turning the Democratic Party into the Undemocratic Party as the best way to beat John W. McCain, then I've got some sub prime mortgages to sell you too.

That was Republican Congressman Thomas M. Davis III in a memo to other Republicans about how the Republican Brand has been tarnished over the last 8 years. The Davis memo was mentioned this morning on Meet the Press:

"Members instinctively understand that the Republican brand is in the trash can.  I've often observed that if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf." That was a memo to party leaders.

The Republican Brand has come to be associated in the public mind with:

(5) The abuse of presidential powers.