The closer election day and the more likely a positive outcome for the Democratic ticket, the more you can see and hear about Sarah Palin getting ready for a 2012 run for the nomination.

This got me wondering: has anyone ever won the nomination of their party or even the presidency after being the running mate on a losing ticket?

Follow me below the fold for what I found. Let's just say history does not bode well for Palin 2012.

Bumped from the diaries -- Jonathan... Great research project, and more on this to come in the coming days.

This diary is in reaction to the diary about former Democrat Joe Lieberman giving more money to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) than most Democratic Senators. It's also a try to get another "use it or lose it" campaign going.

All numbers below the fold.

Dean Heller, friend of big business, friend of Dick Cheney, friend of Halliburton.

Yep, the company formerly chaired by Dick Cheney, the company getting probably the most bang for the buck out of the Iraq war, the company so infamous that there's an entire website devoted to its shameful practices, that company, Halliburton Energy Services, has contributed $1,000 to Heller for Congress on August 1. And Heller gladly excepted it.

In 2003 hardly anyone outside of Illinois knew a state senator named Barack Obama.

Five years later he is the nominee for President of the Democratic Party.

What this shows is that there clearly is talent all over the United States (while I'm not saying there is an Obama in every state). The question simply is if they can make it out of the political wilderness into the limelight.

Cross posted from My Silver State.

Remember 2004? When the incumbent Senate Democratic Leader was beaten when he was running for reelection in South Dakota? The first time the Republican  Senate Leader Bill Frist broke one of those so called DC "gentlemen's agreeements" of not actively campaigning against the leader of the other party?

You want that to happen again in 2010?

No? Then follow me below the fold to see what you can do NOW to stop the Republicans from beating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010!

Amnesty International is starting an ad campaign in UK cinemas on May 9 showing a 90 second ad about water. Well, at about the 50 second mark it turns into a film about the horrors of waterboarding.

Watch (and, yes, it's very graphic):

I just returned from caucus precint 5022 in Reno. This precinct assembled at Clayton Middle School. There were four precincts at this school.

The turnout at this school was astonishing. There were long lines and quite a few people got registered on location. I was told that precinct 5022 had about 20 people come out in 2004 and State Assemblyman David Bobzien (who co-chaired Edwards Northern Nevada campaign) told me they expected about 100 people to turn out in this district. In the end 179 people were in the room.

So I found this little gem in the Christmas Eve edition of the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Eric Herzik, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, agreed, saying Dodd would be no more able than Reid to end the war.

Liberal disenchantment could even be a good thing for Reid in Nevada, where polls have shown his popularity and job approval ratings have dipped to around 30 percent, Herzik said.

"Harry Reid's numbers have dropped in part because he is perceived as more liberal and out of touch," Herzik said. "The way to fix that is to be attacked by the left."

Yeah, liberal means out of touch, that's the old Republican mantra, and Herzik is a Republican, which the LVRJ continuously fails to mention.

But that's really besides the point, as apparently, us bitching about Senator Reid will lift his overall approval numbers. 'Tis the season, so I suppose I can try and do old Harry a little favor. Here it goes: