The case for Mitt Romney as John McCain’s running mate is strong and very easy to make.

He’s well known, popular with the party base, a strong performer on television, and would bring big bucks, vigor and youth (or at least the appearance of it – he is 61, after all) to a Republican ticket that desperately needs all three. Plus, Romney’s corporate background would offer badly needed cover to McCain on the economy, while his family name could boost the ticket in Michigan and his Mormon faith could help in Colorado and Nevada. Factor in the apparent lack of all-star VP options for McCain, and the former Massachusetts governor’s prospects only seem to brighten.  read more »

Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn will introduce former Republican Governor Mike Huckabee at a Manhattan dinner tonight honoring the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel.

According to the press release, headlined "HIKIND & HUCKABEE," the two will appear at the Jerusalem Reclamation Project Dinner at 7:30 p.m. at the Marriott.  read more »

The inscrutable Mike Huckabee has secured a book deal with Sentinel, the conservative imprint of Penguin Group USA that also recently acquired Donald Rumsfeld's memoirs.

From the announcement: "Governor Huckabee's book will lay out his optimistic vision for America's future and explain how the conservative movement can return to its principles, unify its factions, and take back America."

More on this later, maybe!

It's not a big surprise, but within minutes of the polls closing, Vermont has been called for Barack Obama and John McCain.

A deluge of polls on the day before the March 4 primaries shows mixed results:   read more »

Over the weekend, the first new episode of Saturday Night Live to air since the end of the writers’ strike posted the show’s highest ratings since Feb. 4, 2006, easily topping seven million viewers, Variety reports. SNL hadn’t broadcast since the fall, which made Saturday’s show—the first in four consecutive weeks of new SNL episodes—with Tina Fey as host (see above), guest appearances by Mike Huckabee (he was on Weekend Update, too) and Steve Martin (who, coincidentally, hosted the Feb. 4, 2006 episode), and a musical performance by Carrie Underwood, a highly anticipated event.  read more »

Chuck Norris isn’t the only celebrity who has stumped for Republican Mike Huckabee. Here’s a clip of rock group KB Gunn and the Boston Tea Party singing their support for the presidential hopeful from Arkansas. The tune, cleverly titled “The Huckabee Song,” rides high on harmonic intricacies that alone express a fiery passion for Mr. Huckabee’s unique platform of issues. Self-styled proponents of real change in the nation’s capital, Mr. Gunn and his invisible collective of New England-based herb flakes have crafted lyrics, too, which drive at the heart of Mr. Huckabee’s vision for America.

A song without sound is like a painting without a canvas or something, but here’s a little taste of the tune’s poetry. “The Huckabee Song” begins:

I like Huckabee for president—Huckabee!

I like Huckabee for president—Huckabee!

I like Huckabee for president—Huckabee!

I like Huckabee for president—Huckabee!

Though certainly sufficient, those aren’t the only reasons why KB Gunn and the Boston Tea Party want you to vote for Mr. Huckabee. “The home of the brave, the land of the free,” they sing, “needs a leader like Mike Hukabee.” Oh, and we almost forgot—“he wants to fix our country’s press” and “end the IRS.” But at the end of the day, don’t we all?  read more »

Mike Huckabee is coming to New York City on February 27. He may appear outside the city, too, for the right price: $30,000.

That's what Huckabee’s New York Chairman, M. Myers Mermel, says is needed to schedule each additional stop on Huckabee's visit here. In an email to supporters just now, Mermel wrote:  read more »

The 2008 presidential election here in the United States is very important to the French. How important? “Too important," said Douglas Herbert, business editor with the TV news station France 24, "to be left to the American electorate to decide.”

In this, France is not alone. Across Europe, journalists and editors interviewed by The Observer say, people are coming down with the 2008 fever.  read more »

Though the Democratic nomination has yet to be decided, Barack Obama and John McCain have begun acting very much as if the general election has already started, exchanging direct criticisms and sizing each other up. And, while neither has talked publicly about it at this early stage, both men are doubtless pondering the running-mate question.

In a matchup with Obama, McCain would face two potentially conflicting imperatives with his choice of a vice presidential candidate.  read more »