A Mayor Sam Classic: We Called It Over A Year Ago

Originally published July 31, 2007



Alaska's Governor Hottie - better known as Republican Sarah Palin - is being talked up as a potential candidate for the GOP nomination for Vice President. The 43 year old maverick conservative governor - who came out of nowhere to beat a blowhard incumbent in the Republican primary - has quickly built a reputation as a conservative corruption fighter who kicks ass. Imagine her as running mate to Fred Thompson or Rudy Giuliani. They would clean Hillary and Obama's clocks.



Palin - declared by blogger Wonkette as "America's hottest governor" - was the youngest person and first women ever elected governor of the 49th state. She's also the first governor to serve who was born following statehood.



A number of bloggers are seeking to draft Palin for the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination. Columnist Fred Barnes credits Palin's success to the Governor's "adherence to principle - especially to transparency and accountability in government."



GOP Presidential candidates should take a serious look at Palin.

New Hampshire Prediction: Barack and Mitt

"I am so honored to have had this opportunity. Though this campaign is ending, I will continue to fight for change for working families and to elect a Democrat in November."

Okay its doesn't take much in the way of genius to predict that Barack Obama will win the Democratic Primary. Obama's margin of victory will be big, somewhere between 11-13 points. This will add further fuel to the Hillary is dropping out stories that began floating today. Hillary didn't help matters any by crying.

On the other hand John McCain will not - as conventional wisdom might say - win the primary. This is due to the same factor that boosts Obama's margin - maverick, moderate Republicans who will - as is allowed under New Hampshire law - cross over to vote for Barack. Partly, due to the rock star appeal of Obama, partly as a way to stick it to the Clinton's. The loss of moderate voters in the Republican primary boosts Romney's chances; as well as the fact that Romney is quite popular with Republicans in this state that neighbors his home of Massachusetts.

Within the next seven days - maybe as early as Wednesday we'll see Fred Thompson and Bill Richardson drop out. There will be no need yet for also rans such as Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel or Ron Paul to drop out - that's one of the advantages of being a lower tier candidate - you can stay in longer.

The upcoming Michigan GOP primary will go to Romney (his father was Governor there and his brother, a former candidate for Attorney General servers on the Board of Trustees for Michigan State University). Hillary once had a commanding lead there but with African Americans making up a significant portion of the Democratic electorate, Barack will repeat his winning formula.

Following that, wins in South Carolina should go to Huckabee and Obama and Nevada shows promise for Clinton (unless a major contingent of California Democrats led by Valley Doll manage to travel to the Silver State to stage a major effort for Obama) and will be an easy win for McCain. All that leads up to Florida where Giuliani will appeal to former New Yorkers and Cubans and likely win. Hillary should have won Florida big - and could still best Obama - but the three weeks between now and then will be very tough on her and she will have a hard time restraining Obama-mania from infecting the Sunshine State.

I predict that Hillary will drop out just after Super Tuesday when Obama will likely kick ass in just about every state but perhaps New York and New Jersey.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Is Eric Garcetti on Barack Obama's short list for Vice Presidential candidates? Not likely but he joined City Controller Laura Chick at a rally to support the popular Presidential candidate.

The LA Downtown News has come out with their "80 in 08" list of people, projects and events that "will power Downtown this year." This blog was honored to be on that list under the category of "five blogs downtowners will visit frequently in 2008."

latinopoliticsblog.com questions the strategic wisdom of the Hillary Clinton campaign having Mayor Villaraigosa tag along in New Hampshire. More importantly - the blog drives home - why isn't the Mayor at home solving problems instead of playing Presidential politics out of state?

So much for "We Report You Decide" at Fox News. Maverick Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul has been bounced from their on-air debates as well as third party candidates. An activist group, rockthedebates.org is pressing to get pledges from the Democratic and Republican candidates to debate Libertarians, Greens and other third party candidates. So far Paul and Mike Huckabee have signed on; Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are opposed. What are they afraid of?

The one candidate who could take down the incumbent in the 35th Congressional District here in California. Ted Hayes has announced his candidacy for the seat currently held by Maxine Waters.

There's a slew of propositions on the ballot next month that deal with Indian Gaming with some tribes and their money on one side and some on the others and some of them lined up with horse tracks, all in the name of stopping competition. This all points to the fact that Indian Gaming has become a big scam and if we're going to have gambling in California, lets open up casino ownership to anyone.

Like many LA denizens, bloger Los Angelista finds lot of reasons to hate LA - including gangs, traffic and Mayor Villaraigosa - but every reason to love her own neighborhood.

We covered the story of the Disney Company turning NIMBY when someone wanted to build condos near Disneyland. Looks like Disney may have run the developer off with the threat of a ballot measure to shut them down.

Obama, Huckabee Looking Strong In Iowa

Reports are calling Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama as leading in the Iowa Caucus. Heavy turnout in some precincts is likely to favor challengers such as Obama and Huckabee and break against establishment front-runners like Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

Blogger Shelby Highsmith is actually live streaming video of one caucus at his website here. He's doing it with a laptop, camera and Sprint aircard. Maybe we should do this in February.

Presidential Candidate Quiz

Ravi Iyer is a psychologist and bright young blogger who I had the privlige of meeting at a bloggers' gathering earlier this fall at the W Hotel. Ravi's blog PoliPsych.com is part of his research as a graduate student of psychology at USC. Ravi is particularly interested in how people form the ideas that lead them to be politically liberal, conservative or whatever.

Ravi has developed a quiz that you can take that might help you figure out which Presidential candidates agrees with your point of view the most and the least. For me, it looks like that's Fred Thompson on one end and Dennis Kucinich on the other end. Interesting though that on the issues we part company on, Thompson is more conservative than me, on the other hand second place candidate Rudy Giuliani is more liberal than I am on the issues we disagree on.

And were I to vote for Democrat, it looks like Joe Biden is my candidate. I can't believe this guy is stil around.

Here is my list. Feel free to post your own!

1. Fred Thompson
2. Rudy Giuliani
3. John McCain
4. Ron Paul
5. Mitt Romney
6. Mike Huckabee
7. Joe Biden
8. Bill Richardson
9. John Edwards
10. Barack Obama
11. Hillary Clinton
12. Dennis Kucinich

Republican Hottie for Vice President?

Alaska's Governor Hottie - better known as Republican Sarah Palin - is being talked up as a potential candidate for the GOP nomination for Vice President. The 43 year old maverick conservative governor - who came out of nowhere to beat a blowhard incumbent in the Republican primary - has quickly built a reputation as a conservative corruption fighter who kicks ass. Imagine her as running mate to Fred Thompson or Rudy Giuliani. They would clean Hillary and Obama's clocks.

Palin - declared by blogger Wonkette as "America's hottest governor" - was the youngest person and first women ever elected governor of the 49th state. She's also the first governor to serve who was born following statehood.

A number of bloggers are seeking to draft Palin for the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination. Columnist Fred Barnes credits Palin's success to the Governor's "adherence to principle - especially to transparency and accountability in government."

GOP Presidential candidates should take a serious look at Palin.

LA's Newest Bachelor

Questions and fall-out since the announcement last week that Mayor Villaraigosa and his wife Corina were seperating.

Among the items:
The Mayor is expected to address the separation in a Monday press conference.

The Mayor is moving back to CD14 - he will return to his Mount Washington home while his wife and children remain in the official Mayoral residence, Getty House, in Windsor Square.

A genealogy blog wonders if the Mayor will be allowed to continue to use the hybridized name that a younger Antonio Vilar, Jr. and Corina Raigosa came up with years ago.

LA is going to have a single mayor pretty soon - something we haven't had since the days of Dick Riordan - and an experience the folks of New York have previously had. I am sure many of you would like to start posting your a-list of the young ladies that an eligible bachelor like Mayor V would like to date. Remember, the Mayor has one of the best buddies you can troll for chicks with - none other than former President William Jefferson Clinton.

Of course, the Mayor does have higher political aspirations. He may want to read this article before he does anything further.