Here’s what I’ll be watching for as the returns come in on the Junior Super Tuesday.

This year’s Roanoke City Council elections are making for some strange allies.

Over the past few weeks, more and more news sources have been speculating about the possible vice presidential picks for Sens. Clinton, Obama, and McCain. A lot of names have been floated, including at least five Virginians: former Gov. Mark Warner, Gov. Tim Kaine, Sen. Jim Webb, former Sen. George Allen, and retired General Anthony Zinni. In fact, Thursday NBC’s The Today Show ran a story throwing out some options for Senator Obama including Webb and Zinni.

David Bowers just launched his fifth bid for mayor of Roanoke, after losing his last two.

Is anyone else wondering about the political fallout from Alfred Dowe’s resignation from Roanoke City Council?

While politicians across the country are falling over themselves to endorse one of the presidential candidates, one Virginia politician seems quite content to sit on the sidelines.

In my time covering politics in Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia, it is rare that I have seen the public overly interested in something our politicians have done.

It is interesting to see how people can look at the same set of facts and come to completely different conclusions. I had a blaring example of this last week.

Okay, it’s Barack Obama’s turn. Who do I think will be on his short list for VP? The key for Obama is finding someone who has a lengthy resume. He doesn’t need charisma or youth in a running mate. He needs foreign policy experience and gravitas. Being a Washington DC politician is less of a factor than for Hillary or McCain, but it’s hard to see a ticket of two senators being overly successful in a change election.

Okay, it’s time now for a look at the Democrats and the possible VP nominees. Since there are still two candidates with a realistic shot at the nomination in the race, I’ll give my thoughts on who would be best for each individual candidate.

Now that the picture is a little clearer and we have a better idea of who might be the nominee in each party, it’s time to play one of my favorite games: Pick the vice president.

The outcomes are in. We know who won the primaries in Virginia: Barack Obama and John McCain. But, who are the real winners and losers. Here’s my breakdown.

What happened? In a word: the wind. It grounded planes and kept Hillary and Obama from taking off. Hillary is making up for her absence by sending her husband to Roanoke on Monday. There’s no word yet as to whether Obama will make up his event. But, clearly, SWVA Democrats were ready to hear from these candidates and they are disappointed it’s not going to happen.

Over the next three days we will have two presidential candidates, one former president, and a president’s daughter all in our backyard. When’s the last time that happened?!?

John McCain did it. He came back from the political dead to most certainly get the GOP nomination. There are still a few more battles to be fought between him and the only two remaining candidates: Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. But, McCain will easily win enough of those to prevail.

We’ve been talking a lot about momentum lately and it’s been in a political context. Today, we saw momentum in a different venue: art.

Here’s just a quick observation about the night so far. There’s going to be a battle about who won the expectations game.

Mark Warner will be in town on Monday and Tuesday. While here, he’ll be touring several local businesses, shaking hands at local restaurants, and speaking to students at Radford. These are fairly standard campaign stops and usually don’t elicit all that much interest, much less excitement. But, Mark Warner is different.

Today, we saw more signs of things picking up in the Commonwealth.

Get ready for the political tsunami that is about to hit Virginia. Super Tuesday is Feb. 5th and one week later voters in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC will vote.

Today John Edwards dropped his bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination. It was a surprise announcement to almost everyone except one of Edwards’ longtime advisors: Mudcat Saunders of Roanoke.

So, tonight President Bush will deliver his last State of the Union address. Most political analysts agree that it will not make much difference and will not dramatically alter our current political landscape.

Washington and Lee held its historic mock convention over the weekend. Every four years for the past 108 years, students there have gathered to pick who they think will get the nomination of the party out of power.

My advice: don’t buy into the hype that it will be the deciding issue of the primary.

So, it would appear that much of the Democratic establishment is lining up with Obama. Is the same happening on the GOP side? Is one candidate garnering the bulk of the institutional support? In a word, no.

It would seem two candidates have the most to gain from Thompson’s exit: Mike Huckabee and John McCain.

Is Virginia going for Obama? At this point, it would appear that at least all of our elected officials are. Gov. Tim Kaine was the first governor in the nation to endorse Obama. Since then Obama has picked up the endorsements of former Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, Rep. Bobby Scott, and Richmond mayor and former Gov. Doug Wilder.

We had a big weekend with some big results. Hillary Clinton handily won the Democratic Caucuses in NV and John McCain squeaked by in the GOP primary in SC. So what does any of it mean? Here’s my take.

So far, in the three big contests they’ve had, the voters in IA, NH, and MI picked different winners. This is unprecedented in modern Republican Party politics. Will South Carolina help clear the chaos or add to it?

Welcome to my blog. It’s been a long time coming, and I’ve had plenty of time to think about the focus of this regular posting.