Presidential Campaigns

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) may run for president in 2012, but must first decide whether or not to run for a third term as governor, a race a new poll Thursday indicated may be an uphill battle.

A SurveyUSA poll of Minnesotans released Thursday showed that 57 percent of voters said that Pawlenty shouldn't run for a third term in 2010.

41 percent of voters supported a third term for the incumbent Republican, while two percent were undecided.

For Pawlenty, a run for the governorship again could mean a sustained presence in political office before the 2012 presidential elections. It could also signal a deferred interest in seeking the top office until the 2016, so as to avoid going toe-to-toe with President Obama.

The prerecorded telephone poll of 500 adults, conducted May 11, has a 4.4 percent margin of error.

As the Republican Party considers its strategies going forward, Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) Country First PAC is looking for input from supporters.

The PAC sent out an email to supporters Monday looking for feedback on a variety of policy positions, as well as a question about how active the PAC should be in upcoming elections.

"Our team is collecting information on some of the top issues our elected leaders across the country are facing and we want to know where you stand," McCain wrote in a letter to supporters inviting them to take the 12-question survey.

The survey email also invited supporters to donate to the PAC.

The questionnaire includes issues like government spending and foreign policy -- issues often finding their way to the top of McCain's former presidential campaign agenda.

View the survey questions after the jump. Read more...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has pulled out of another prominent out-of-state event, increasing her streak of declined invitations to high-profile fundraisers and speaking engagements.

Palin has declined an invitation to the National Rifle Association (NRA) Foundation's annual meeting, according to Amanda Carpenter of the Washington Times.

Palin cited a family commitment in turning down the invitation, which the NRA itself had previously indicated the governor had accepted. The organization had even crafted a specialty rifle for Palin.

The declined NRA invite is one of many engagements Palin has turned down since the presidential election. She spurned House and Senate Republicans who'd hoped she'd come to D.C. for a fundraiser, pulled out of speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and sent her husband, Todd Palin, in her stead at this past weekend's White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

(Hat tip: GOP12)

The ejection of social conservatives from the GOP's base would mark the end of the Republican Party, potential presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) warned Thursday.

"Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs," Huckabee told the Visalia Times-Delta.

"They'll basically be a party of gray-haired old men sitting around the country club puffing cigars, sipping brandy and wondering whatever happened to the country," Huckabee said. "That will be the end of the party."

The 2008 presidential candidate said that the "energy" in the party came from voters motivated by issues like gay marriage and abortion, and argued these same voters often support limited government and a strong national defense -- two other core GOP issues.

Hat tip: the invaluable GOP12.

Bristol Palin, the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), says she wishes she would have waited to become intimate with her boyfriend, which resulted in her pregnancy.

Palin, appearing on "Good Morning America" to kick off a campaign for teen abstinence, said that her infant son is a "blessing," but one she wishes she could have enjoyed later in her life.

"My son is a blessing; he's the best thing to ever happen to me," she told ABC's Chris Cuomo. "But I do wish that years from now I could have the same son."

"I would have waited -- waited for have sex, obviously," she explained. "Regardless of what I did personally, I just think abstinence is the only effective, foolproof, 100 percent way to prevent pregnancy."

Palin said that she hopes the baby's father, Levi Johnston, will stay in her child's life, and characterized her having to explain her pregnancy to her parents as being "harder than labor."

She also said remarks of hers about abstinence for teens being "unrealistic" were taken out of context, and that she pays little attention tot he chatter about her mother, the former Republican vice presidential candidate.

"I don't see myself as a celebrity, I don't want to be one," Palin said. "But I think using this experience in my life to help others is a blessing."

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will attend this weekend's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, according to several reports.

The invaluable GOP12 blog points to stories by US Magazine and Entertainment Wise reporting that Palin will attend the dinner, the annual suaree for politicians and journalists.

Palin has avoided a number of engagements in Washington since last year's presidential election, including appearances at a June fundraiser for House and Senate Republicans and a speaking engagement at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

This year's dinner is set for this coming Saturday, and will feature entertainment by comedienne Wanda Sykes. It's informally known within Washington as "prom" for its once-a-year emphasis on glitz and glamor in D.C.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) accused the Obama administration of setting up a confrontation with Israel, and encouraged the U.S. to more strongly back the Mideast state.

"They are systematically setting up the most decisive confrontation that we've ever seen," Gingrich told the Jerusalem Post.

"There's almost an eagerness to take on the Israeli government to make a point with the Arab world," the potential presidential candidate said.

"The threats we are faced with are far more catastrophic than any of our leaders are willing to talk about," Gingrich said during his address Sunday before the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference.

Two partisan heavyweights did battle Thursday over an amendment prized by conservatives, as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) withdrew backing for a bill that would have toughened regulations for community organizing groups.

Frank withdrew his support from an amendment offered by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) that would forbid groups like the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) from receiving federal grants if any of their employees have been indicted for voter fraud.

After approving the amendment by a unanimous voice vote, Frank announced Thursday he was mistaken to back the bill, and said he'd offer a substitute that would apply the amendment only to groups with employees who are actually convicted -- not just indicted. Frank's version would also take into account the employee's position in the organization, and how long ago the conviction had been handed down.

"Focusing on an indictment and letting an indictment be the trigger of penalties would be a violation the basic rules and fairness of American law," Frank told The Hill. "So if one person is indicted, the whole "innocent until proven guilty, etc"

Potential 2012 presidential candidate and Utah Gov. John Huntsman (R) said that while Republicans have done a good job of being unified in opposition to President Obama, they've done a poor job of offering alternatives.

"Instead of just kind of grousing and complaining, it would do us all a whole lot of good if we actually started engaging directly in finding compromises and common ground and shared solutions," Huntsman said Wednesday in an interview with ABC News.

Huntsman has carved out a reputation as one of the most popular governors in the country, but has been openly critical of the GOP at times and unafraid to break with the party establishment on some issues. In particular, he's backed civil unions for gay and lesbian couples in Utah, and openly accepted funds from the federal stimulus package while other Republican governors had balked at taking the money.

"I would give the party high marks for unified opposition, getting everybody in line, keeping everybody contained, in opposition to some of the initiatives of the Obama administration," he said. "That now needs to be supplemented by real ideas and solutions."

Huntsman gave Republicans an "incomplete" grade for their first 100 days in the opposition, but expressed optimism that the party has begun to grasp that they can't be labeled as the "party of 'no.'"

The Republicans have struggled to maintain nationwide relevancy because they can't handle the growing ranks of minority voters, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) alleged Wednesday.

Waters, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and the most senior black woman in Congress, blamed the GOP's electoral woes on the party's inability to reach out to minorities.

"There's a growing minority population all over this country. And they're just not in step," Waters said during an appearance on MSNBC. "They've never understood how to deal with that growing minority. They've never reassessed their direction and their vision. And so it's coming home to roost."

Waters's comments come amidst an open debate about the shrinking of the Republican Party, with Sen. Arlen Specter's departure of the party and some other Republican lawmakers openly lamenting a perceived regionalization in the GOP.

"They're just out of step with the majority of the people in this country," Waters argued. "They have shown that they cannot embrace a policy that connects with most of the people in this country."