85 days until the General Election!  More importantly, football is back!

“Monday Morning Politics” is where I take a quick look at several political stories from the past weekend.  Plus, I also offer some commentary about these stories – sometimes laced with just a little sarcasm…

Today I talk about Rove in Montana, the Montana At-Large race, money in the Montana Governor’s race, the Districting and Apportionment Commission meetings, caring about the Presidential Election, and I devote a special section to the announcement of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate.

There’s a lot more, so read on…

Undisclosed Location:

The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper reported that Karl Rove was in the Flathead Valley last week saying, “He was interviewed by Fox News on Tuesday from a Whitefish Lake location.”

OMG!!

Jon Tester’s campaign told reporters and bloggers (like me) that Denny Rehberg was also in the area during the same time as Rove.  You can read their take on the Rove visit HERE.

I guess the drones monitoring our every move were not working in the Flathead last week…

Still Has a Pulse:

The Rick Hill for Montana Governor Campaign (R) won the fundraising battle for the past month, but he still trails Democrat Steve Bullock in the cash on hand department.  You can read the story HERE.

This race is a yawner so far…

Montana U.S. House At-Large:

Lee Newspapers finally discovered the Montana U.S. House At-Large race between Republican Steve Daines and Democrat Kim Gillan is as boring as watching paint dry.  You can read their report HERE.

I see this race as a Daines landslide unless the Democrats and Gillan get engaged, spend some money, and get some paid media going.  I could write a campaign plan to beat Daines on a small napkin.  Nobody outside Gillan’s district and the Democratic Party knows her – and this is a state-wide contest – you can’t meet every voter face to face…

Districting and Apportionment Commission:

The Associated Press and Lee Newspapers published stories recently about the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission meeting this week to carve out the legislative districts across the state for the next 10 years.

There’s a lot of political posturing during this process.  It would have been nice if the GOP would have placed as much energy into getting people counted for the 2010 Census, as they will in complaining about the process once the three left-leaning members of the commission vote them down 3-2 over and over this week…

Do We Care Yet?

According to a new poll from Gallup, “Sixty-four percent of Americans say they have given quite a lot of thought to the 2012 presidential election, a slightly lower percentage than Gallup measured in July of 2004 and 2008.  But Americans are much more engaged in the current election than in the 2000 election.”

Around mid-September we’ll see people start paying attention…to football.

McCain in Montana:

Congressman Denny Rehberg announced that U.S. Senator John McCain will be in Great Falls this Friday for several events.  Here’s a press release with details.

Hopefully McCain will explain to the local folks (and the media) why the New START Treaty is bad for America’s security and safety.  He voted against it – which was the correct way to vote.

Paul Ryan – GOP Vice Presidential Candidate

Everyone’s Happy:

The Republicans are extremely happy with Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate.  I mean squealing loudly happy.  Paul Ryan is a Tea Party favorite.  The Romney campaign was starting to lose momentum.  It was kind of like Romney hit Control/Alt/Delete on his campaign with the selection of Ryan.

By the way, Fox News went into 24/7 campaign mode in their support of Ryan.

Some observers are saying it almost seems as though Ryan should have been the Presidential nominee for the GOP and maybe Mitt Romney as the Vice President because Ryan is very far right and he could have chosen the more moderate Romney to help him draw from the independent voters.

The Democrats are extremely happy with the Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate.  They now will try to frame him as a far-right extremist and someone who will take away your Medicare and privatize Social Security and give tax breaks to millionaires.

With the selection of Paul Ryan, I’m thinking Obama has a better chance of being re-elected…

In a Tough Spot:

Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg who is running for U.S. Senate is in a tough spot with Paul Ryan being chosen as Mitt Romney’s running mate.  As several news organizations reported (including ABC’s The Note), “Democrats have already begun to highlight an ad released by Montana Republican Senate candidate Denny Rehberg earlier this year in which the candidate specifically called out Ryan’s budget as potentially harmful to seniors.”

You can watch the ad HERE.

Early Saturday morning Chuck Todd of NBC News tweeted, “I bet Denny Rehberg woke up with a big headache this morning.”

The Rehberg campaign sent three tweets out Saturday morning to stop the damage.  Here’s one, “I’m excited that Gov. Romney chose my friend and House colleague Paul Ryan to be our party’s candidate for VP”

Candidates have been known to throw everyone and everything over the side during a campaign to try and win…

Big Losers:

The big losers in this Presidential Election are veterans.  According to USA Today, “For the first time since 1932, no presidential or vice presidential candidate for the Democratic or Republican party has any military experience.”

It’s OK for the non-veteran candidates and elected officials to tout just how much they care about us Veterans, but when the rubber hit the road, they did not care enough to serve their country…

Follow Jack on Twitter @TheWesternWord