The Occasional Observer

Apparently, McCain has wisely waited for the field to cull itself.

Huckabee shot himself in the foot (pun intended) with his "someone was pointing a gun at Obama" gaffe last week. Now, he's compounded the error by openly campaigning for veep mere days later. Can you say bad timing?

Meanwhile, the Obama tactic of calling McCain "Bush's 3rd term" is clearly effective and also forcing McCain's hand (see his anti-Bush/pro-enviromentalist tour last week). All the Bush-connected possibles seem more unlikely now than ever before (Rice/Portman/Ridge), with the possible exception of Powell who isn't likely to get involved anyway.

With the circumstances lining up nicely for Tim Pawlenty, the time was right for him to unleash his own self-destructive volley. Apparently, when your wife won't have sex with you, Minnesotans find it funny, or else Tim just doesn't have any acceptable outlets to share the bad news.