The Republican Nomination For President: The Race For The Race For The White House

Conservatives have proven themselves wrong on fiscal issues throughout my entire life. Over and over again. Predictions that they make publicly don't come true. Explanations they give for things are false ones that don't hold up under any scrutiny. And yet, you still feel as if you have credibility on these issues. I can't understand why.

There's more than 600 days until the 2012 election.

Kaine "Increasingly Likely" To Run For Senate
By Sean Sullivan
March 14, 2011 | 2:24 PM
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Political observers and reporters in Washington and Virginia closely monitoring Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine were thrown a curveball Monday afternoon, following a report from a Virginia radio station that seemed to indicate that Kaine had decided to enter the Virginia Senate race and announced his decision in a highly unorthodox manner. While the report was ultimately shot down by the DNC, a spokesperson did say that Kaine acknowledged that he is "increasingly likely" to run, the strongest public indication yet that he is leaning toward entering the race.

A report on the website of Charlottesville radio station WINA was published Monday afternoon, indicating "a University of Richmond student has been told that former governor Tim Kaine has said he WILL run for the U.S. Senate. A caller named Greg phoned the Schilling Show on Newsradio 1070 WINA early Monday afternoon and said he has two friends taking the class that Kaine teaches at the UR Jepson School. Kaine reportedly told the class that he will seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being left vacant by Jim Webb."

Twitter was subsequently abuzz with reporters and other observers relaying various reactions from Democrats who did not know anything about the announcement and were unable to confirm the report.

After a brief period of uncertainty, the DNC issued a statement pouring cold water on the idea that Kaine had made the official announcement that was reportedly relayed by the caller but did confirm, notably, that Kaine said he is "increasingly likely to run."

"In response to a student's question, Governor Kaine told his law school class today what is already widely known which is that he is increasingly likely to run," said DNC spokesperson Brad Woodhouse. "However, no final decision will be made or announced until the governor has had a final round of consultations with folks about how he can best serve the President, the people and the causes he cares about; he is assured that the Democratic Party will be in good hands should he choose to make the race and leave the DNC; he has the support that would be necessary to mount a successful campaign and he completes commitments for travel and fundraising he has made to the Party and the President through at least the end of the month."

Kaine may announce his official decision as early as this week, according to recent reports.

Just another afternoon in the 24 hour news cycle.

I'm with Herman Cain as of this minute. I'm open to anyone.

The four biggest-name Republicans believed to be considering presidential bids have all grown more unpopular over the past two years.

As Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen notes, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have all lost support among registered voters since PPP began polling their net favorable ratings in April 2009.

In April 2009, Huckabee posted a +8 favorable rating in a PPP poll, with 42% of voters nationwide holding a favorable opinion of him, versus 34% who had an unfavorable opinion. In PPP's latest poll, Huckabee had a -7 favorable rating.

Over that same span, Romney went from a +5 to a -12 (40/35 to 32/44), Palin dropped from -7 to -22 (42/49 to 35/57) and Gingrich fell from -8 to -31 (36/44 to 26/57.)