• Commercial Appeal: Refurbished Peabody is stage for top Republicans
• AP: Katherine Harris to attend conference
• Mercury News: Jessie Jane Duff, chair of Americans for Dr. Rice, will be passing out Viva Condi stickers
• National Journal: 1800 Republicans have signed up to attend; Trent Lott to stump for John McCain
• New York Post: “McCain’s speech tomorrow night is seen as the keynote and the one to watch.”
• CA: Profiles Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee; local activist John Ryder suggests he might make a run at VP.
• Arkansas News Bureau: Washington consultant assisting Huckabee
• ANB: “George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, won the straw poll at the 1998 conference even though he did not attend that year’s conference. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani is the only major GOP prospect who is not scheduled to attend this year’s conference.”
• Madison County Journal: Barbour will address GOP leadership
• Tennessean: “[Sen. Bill] Frist downplayed his interest in the straw vote and said its outcome should not be overplayed.”
• Washington Post: Kansas Senator [Sam Brownback] floats flat-tax plan for Washington
• NPR: Sen. Sam Brownback’s Politics of Faith
• Cal Thomas: Will McCain be the one in ‘08?
• Mercury News: Changing political climate could help McCain
• Human Events: McCain vs. Hillary
• AZ Central: McCain calls Dakotans ‘cheap’
• Developing…

Here’s an update from ABC’s The Note:

2008:
In Roll Call, Stu Rothenberg asserts that, “long shots no longer win presidential nominations.”

“The GOP will nominate Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) or George Allen (R-VA) or Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA). The Democrats will nominate Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) or Evan Bayh ((D-IN), former Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA) or former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC). That’s it.”