The Hedgehog Report Vice Presidential Selection Prediction Contest is officially closed and there are 45 legitimate entries. An overwhelming plurality of you picked Tim Kaine for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney for John McCain. Both candidates had double-digit leads. Here is the leaders contenders on each side.

REPUBLICANS Mitt Romney 18 Tim Pawlenty 6 Tom Ridge 5 Sarah Palin 4 John Kasich 3 Charlie Crist 2 7 others 1

DEMOCRATS Tim Kaine 20 Hillary 7 Evan Bayh 5 Joe Biden 3 Sam Nunn 2 Kathleen Sebelius 2 6 others 1

Averaging out the selection date of all the picks, Barack Obama will pick his VP nominee on August 14th and John McCain will select his on August 23rd. Now we wait….

Bill Clinton just sent out an email begging people to donate money to Hillary by pledging $5 for the chance to win a dinner with Hillary. I don;t why, but this entire passage made me chuckle out loud.

During the campaign, Hillary and I didn’t have the chance to eat together much because we were usually on the trail in different states. Now that the campaign’s over, I’m glad we can share more meals again.

Of all the people I’ve had the privilege to break bread with, the person I most enjoy is still Hillary

I’m sorry, but who on earth believes that crap? The next thing you know, John Edwards will be telling us…oh never mind…way too easy….

After falling behind a month ago, John McCain has regain the three electoral votes from Montana in the latest poll from Scott Rasmussen as he is now tied with Obama.

PRESIDENT – MONTANA (Rasmussen)
John McCain (R) 47%
Barack Obama (D) 47%

For some reason, Rasmussen polled 500 likely voters for this race when he polled 700 for the gubernatorial race one post down. Not sure why. In Kentucky, Obama closed the gap slightly, but still trails by double digits.

PRESIDENT – KENTUCKY (Rasmussen)
John McCain (R) 49%
Barack Obama (D) 39%

McCain led by 16% last month. Finally in Texas, McCain maintains a high single-digit lead.

PRESIDENT – TEXAS (Rasmussen)
John McCain (R) 52%
Barack Obama (D) 44%

The KY poll was done July 29th and the TX poll was done July 30th, both among 500 likely voters. Moving away from Rasmussen, we have a new poll from California from Public Policy Institute of California.

PRESIDENT – CALIFORNIA (PPIC)
Barack Obama (D) 50%
John McCain (R) 35%

This poll was done July 8-22 among 1952 registered voters. That is all for now….

Quinnipiac University is out with a trio of swing polls in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Here are the results.

PRESIDENT – FLORIDA (Quinnipiac University)
Barack Obama (D) 46%
John McCain (R) 44%

PRESIDENT – OHIO (Quinnipiac University)
Barack Obama (D) 46%
John McCain (R) 44%

PRESIDENT – PENNSYLVANIA (Quinnipiac University)
Barack Obama (D) 49%
John McCain (R) 42%

Like the polls from MN, CO, WI, and MI last week, all three results represent a gain for McCain. The polls were done between July 23-29 among 1,248 likely Florida voters, 1,229 likely Ohio voters and 1,317 likely Pennsylvania voters.

By the way, don’t forget that today is the last day to enter The Hedgehog Report Vice Presidential Selection Prediction Contest. If you haven’t put in your guess, go there now….

BUMPED TO TOP

Okay, before either candidate jumps the gun, I figure it is about time to set up The Hedgehog Report Vice Presidential Selection Prediction Contest. For this contest, I want you to give four pieces of information. You will choose whom you think Barack Obama will choose as his vice presidential ticket mate along with the date he will make the selection followed by whom you think John McCain will choose as his VP ticket mate along the date you think he will make the choice public.

For instance, your prediction should read as follows:

Barack Obama
Joe Lieberman
August 18th

John McCain
Chuck Hagel
August 30th

Winner will be the one who gets the most items correct with the tiebreaker being the actual running mates. There can be a tie.

In this thread, please only enter your prediction. There will be plenty of other places to argue, debate, criticize, and whine about vice presidential choices.

I will keep this contest open until July 31st at 7:00pm and will periodically link to this post again as the days go by.

Good luck!

I can’t believe the McCain campaign actually thought this ad was a good idea.

Now the McCain campaign has been hit or miss with many of their ads this year. This one is borderline pathetic and I can’t believe McCain was actually willing to put his “I approve this message” at the end. I actually cringed when I saw this the first time. I guess I should at least be happy they found a new person for the voice-over for the ads….