John, Love your analysis and the clothes pin reference. Great humor. Unfortunately so true.
Dayton Daily News has a piece today about McCain in the driver's seat and needing to reach out for conservatives. McCain does not have a bus large enough for me. Sure I'll vote for him......I may even wear my clothes pin to the poll......
Around Greene County it is rumored that Mike DeWine could be hedging for the Attorney General job in a McCain administration.
In addition to ANWR, Gang of 14, and illegal alien amnesty, Mike DeWine lost because of the gun vote. Many gun owners voted for Sherrod Brown - who is terrible on our issue - to send a message to the ORP. (I believe Kevin DeWine and the ORP has heard the message but unfortunately neither he nor the RNC can force candidate positions or pick the front-runners.)
McCain is viewed as weak on gun issue. With DeWine in his camp, it will not help McCain win Ohio.
McCain also has the McCain-Feingold baggage. That piece of work managed to be both anti-1st Amendment and anti-2nd Amendment. It is the reason the NRA launched the NRA News Network. Gun owners saw it as an attempt to silence us on our issue.
I see a lot of gun owners sitting out the presidential campaign. I'll not work for McCain. I see many others not voting or even voting for Hillary or BO. Gun forums out there are raging nasty right now. How much of that is hot air frustration and how much will be action is hard to say.
Here is a good link from the National Shooting Sports Foundation - industry group - on McCain. I think the quotes show a considerable amount of flipping on the issue. I often use the NSSF on shooting/hunting info - they are very reliable. http://www.nssf.org/08election/index.cfm?candidate=McCain I am hearing increased rumors that Mike DeWine will be his pick for AG if McCain is elected. Mike's anti-gun record is well known and he did vote for AWB etc. I've heard this from Republican contacts across the state.

John----Good report.
We must keep the Dems out of the White House at all costs, if nothing else but the appointment of Federal Judges. We conservatives must lick our wounds, suck it up, and tend to business. This means developing the same enthusiasm we had for 2000 & 2004 in getting out the vote. I believe that McCain has got the message and will do everything he can to win the conservative vote. I cannot imagine the people of this great country of ours electing the Socialist (Dems) party to run this Country. For those people that think Canada has such a great Health Care System, here are a few statistics. TAKES 6 MONTHS FOR AN MRI, 1YEAR FOR A HIP REPLACEMENT, AND A 10 MONTH WAITING LIST FOR MATERNITY.

Cindy and I along with Hoss Newman drove to the Great Wolf Lodge near Kings Island today to see Mike Huckabee. He was terrific as usual. He played base with the band before giving a stump speech that seemed to connect with the 500 or so attendees. He emphasized the importance of all human life and his strong commitment to the unborn as well as the elderly. He also spoke about the fair tax and what it would do to stimulate economic growth. He reiterated his desire to stay in this race until someone gets the required number of committed delegates. (He made a comment about the networks that I have noticed - no two networks have the same number of delegates listed for the candidates. If nobody knows who has what then why are they asking him to drop out?) He definitely knows how to captivate a crowd with his mix of humor and real life stories from his past. It was good to see some familiar faces there today as well. Janet Folger did a wonderful job of introducing Mike. Janet also introduced Phil Burress and his wife along with Ohio Huckabee campaign chair Jeff Longstreth. I got a chance to talk with fellow Huckabee delegates John Becker and Lori Viars as well as Phil Heimlich and Tom Brinkman. (Tom is currently a candidate for congress and Phil was until he recently withdrew from the race)

Around 250 people filled the West Union High School on Saturday to celebrate our Republican principles and look forward to the future. Our featured speakers were Former White House Budget Director Rob Portman and Congresswoman Jean Schmidt. The Adams County Republican Club did raise some of the much needed funds to compete with the local democrat party in November.