We’re putting our All Things Presidential blog in storage.

For the time being, we’ll be consolidating our presidential postings on Total Buzz.

And for our in-depth coverage of the 2008 campaign, see our Presidential Page, that includes an up-to-date delegate tally, our Political Pulse poll, the Follow the Money campaign finance feature, profiles of the presidential candidates and more features to come as the campaign continues to heat up.

Award-winning OCRegister biz blogger Jon Lansner has a great post about Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s economic speech and proposals – and those of fellow candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton — on his blog here.

Democrats, independents and Latinos agree on John McCain’s biggest vulnerability in his presidential bid: His position on Iraq. That was named by at least half of those casting votes from each of those groups in the OC Political Pulse poll.

There is far less agreement among Republican respondents when asked what McCain’s biggest vulnerability is. 25% say his lack of conservative appeal. 20% say his position on immigration. 16% say his lack of economic expertise. 22% said either Iraq, his health, or his age.

Anti-illegal immigration advocates overwhelmingly picked his position on immigration.

John McCain stopped into the county four times for fundraisers last year, while his Tuesday luncheon at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach will be his first visit of 2008. At this point, there’s no indication that he’ll be seeing anyone here besides those who pay the big bucks for lunch, but that could change.

Contact information for the event, according to the OC GOP site, is 949-474-6930 or stacy@stacy-davis.com.

No word yet on how the potatoes will be served.

Forget Iraq. Forget the economy.

Let’s talk about where the candidates stand on basketball - NCAA that is. John McCain and Barack Obama both have picked North Carolina to go all the way  - not exactly a creative choice. The Tar Heels are seeded number one after all.

But even though the two agree on the eventual outcome, they follow different paths to get there.

Read the rest of this entry »

In case you missed Robert Novak’s column, he reports that some of Christopher Cox’s one-time colleagues in Congress are touting the former Newport Beach representative as possible vice presidential candidate:

“Former conservative colleagues in the House of Representatives are boosting Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission since 2005, to be Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential running mate.”

.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nine million Californians voted on Feb. 5 and 749,00 Orange County residents cast ballots — both are primary records.

Statewide, 57.7 percent of all registered voters (39.5 percent of all adults eligible to vote) cast ballots, the highest primary percentage since 1976. Countywide, it was 48.7 percent of registered voters (40.1 percent of eligible adults).

The county’s percentage is not that impressive, as it typically turns out better than the rest of the state and had 59 percent turnout in a primary as recently as 2000.

Click here for more on primary turnout from Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

The latest suggestion in what to do about the Democratic nomination….

.

.

.

.

.

.

An interesting poll at OC Political Pulse. It asks about the influence of illegal immigration on presidential voting preferences, and the results show dramatic differences between the seven groups polled.

Half of anti-illegal immigration advocates don’t say all the candidates are weak (and another 29 percent have checked “other”). 35 percent of Republicans says all the candidates are weak on the subject. 45 percent of Democrats say there are more important issues — but only 16 percent of Latinos agree. 58 percent of Latinos says the Democratic candidates are stronger on the subject.

Sen. John McCain’s support for comprehensive immigration reform has gotten him in trouble with much of the base of his party but it clearly helped him get the endorsement of a local growers’ group.

 McCain has said on the campaign trail that he has seen the light and now supports an enforcement first approach to immigration. But I’ll bet this group and others know that of all the Republican presidential possibilities, McCain was the only one that would likely even entertain the kind of guest worker program they want as well as a chance for the 12 milion illegal immigrants here not to eventually get a path to legalization.

 The Irvine-based Western Growers’ board of directors today sent us a release to let us know they’ve endorsed McCain. Here’s some comments from leaders in that group.

Read the rest of this entry »