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20 Republican governors. 500 conservative donors. A private resort in Texas. 3 days to finalize their comeback strategy... Sound like a bad dream? Unfortunately, it's all too real. And it's all happening right now in Austin, where the Republican Governors Association is holding their annual conference.

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The "comeback" faces of the GOP include lackluster has-beens like John Kasich, former FOX News host and a leading figure at Lehman Brothers at the time of the bank's collapse, and Bill McCollum, a long-time politician/lobbyist whose crowning achievement in his 30 year congressional career is sponsoring the legislation that helped turn the housing market into a "big gambling casino." And the list only gets worse from there.

New Jersey Gov.-elect Chris Christie first answered by saying he intentionally avoided bringing any national party leaders into the state in an effort to keep the focus on his own solutions specific to the state. But after it was pointed out that figures like Jeb Bush, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney made stops in the Garden State, Christie offered a new explanation.

"The people I asked to come into campaign for me were either someone like Mayor Giuliani, who I have known for the better part of a decade, or two governors who had faced the same kind of things and could talk about those issues in an intelligent way to show how Republican ideas had fixed those fiscal problems in those states," he said.

Virginia's Bob McDonnell said that he had initially reached out to Palin at an early stage in his run for governor seeking her involvement. But she "was in such incredible demand" and busy with work in Alaska that an early visit was not possible. By the time she resigned her post, McDonnell then claimed, "we had pretty much already arranged all of the folks that we had for the home stretch for fundraisers, including several current and former governors."

At a gathering that includes a number of leaders thought to be on the 2012 short list, presidential politics was an unavoidable matter of discussion among guests and the press corps gathered here. Gov. Tim Pawlenty led a public panel of governors and gubernatorial candidates focusing on "solutions" on health care, energy and efficient government. On the panel: Govs. Bobby Jindal and Rick Perry, who each face the voters again before 2012 but are on a number of darkhorse lists. Singled out in the audience by his colleagues several times was Gov. Mitch Daniels, who was praised for his budgetary "miracle" in Indiana.

Asked if he thought the party's 2012 standard bearer was on the stage tonight, another potential candidate -- RGA chairman Haley Barbour, emphasized the short term.

"Every Republican needs to have his or her eye on the 2010 elections. Those are the elections that matter," he said. "Those are the elections that are going to be critical about putting our foot on the break and stopping some of the bad things that are happening in this country. After the 2010 elections are over, then and only then do I think people ought to be thinking about who's going to run for president."

Jindal: Louisiana Wary of Health Reform

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana made an expansive critique of proposed health reform in Washington, while arguing that Republican opposition was more than just politics.

"I think that the danger for America is far, far greater than any perceived political advantage," he said. "What I worry about is the damage that could be caused by these bills would be structural, would be long lasting, would harm innovation, would harm our quality of care, and continue to exacerbate our deficits."

Governors in particular are concerned about a "massive cost shift" to states in new responsibilities for Medicaid, Jindal said, and he outlined some alternative reforms that would not rely on a new government option. That increased federal role is of particular concern to Louisiana, he said.

"The ones that have seen government at its best and its worst are very concerned by this idea of government getting between patients and their physicians," he said. It seemed to be reference to a clear failure by the government when the state needed it most: after Hurricane Katrina.

The Daggett Gambit

Recapping the 2009 races, RGA officials took particular pride in a key decision made in New Jersey late in the race. Independent Chris Daggett was a wild card throughout, and as his support grew to double-digit levels, the RGA launched a tough attack ad on broadcast television targeting the independent.

"A lot of people in the state accused us of raising his profile," said RGA executive director Nick Ayers. Even in the party, some feared that the move may have cost the party its chance to win by further raising the profile of a relatively unknown candidate. "We felt vindicated a day later when Christie's campaign also attacked Daggett."

Paul Lerner, a pollster used by the RGA in the Garden State, said the decision was based on a troubling trend they saw in Daggett's numbers. It wasn't the total, but the profile of his support -- early on, they saw him drawing votes from Gov. Jon Corzine by a 2-to-1 margin. By early October, though, Daggett was drawing equally from both candidates. So a strategic call was made, which Lerner said essentially recreated a primary among GOP voters between Christie and Daggett, that Christie clearly won.

Just as Senate Democrats were unveiling legislation to reform the nation's health care system, Texas' governor called for a simpler approach to governance that emphasized tax cuts, lower spending and less obtrusive regulation.

"By and large, it's been those Republican governors who have had the courage and the will and the discipline to push those types of changes through," Perry said at the opening public session of the Republican Governors Association Conference here tonight. "We have a federal government today that is wanting to ... create one-sized fits all policy for all of the states. I happen to think it's time for a substantial number of governors to have the courage to stand up and push back on Washington, DC."

It was the strongest message of the featured speakers tonight, but one that could define the gathering as Republican state leaders celebrate double wins in New Jersey and Virginia. Perry, as well as Govs. Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal and Mitch Daniels, emphasized the idea of states driving policy and competing with one another, rather than the federal government implementing one universal policy on all 50.

"I get pretty passionate about the Tenth Amendment," Perry told his fellow governors and hundreds of other attendees at a resort outside Austin. "We don't need to back away from in the least bit."

"The problems in this country and the state of New Jersey are too big for us to be always emphasizing the partisan divide," Christie said at a press conference with McDonnell and RGA chair Haley Barbour. "The places I don't agree with the president - and there are more of those than I agree with him - I'm going to speak out vocally and I'm going to stand up for the things I believe in -- that's what the people elected me to do. But they didn't elect me to be disagreeable just for the sake of doing it."

McDonnell noted that he emphasized a bipartisan message in his campaign in Virginia, and highlighted his agreement with the president on areas like education.

"There is so much heartache in this economy, and there's so much bad news that people hear about," McDonnell said. "What they don't need is more rancor out of Washington or Richmond or any other state.

Republican governors will continue to draw contrasts with the Democratic administration in Washington Thursday in a press conference addressing health care reform. That specific issue was raised several times tonight, most notably by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. He said that his state's residents have seen both teh best and worst of government (a reference to federal response to Hurricane Katrina), and that they were wary of government "involvement in health care."

Keep checking back for updates on what the Republican Governors are saying about their 2009 victories and 2010 prospects. You can also get instant updates on what's going on at some of the sessions by following me on Twitter.

General Election Matchup
Carnahan 43 (-2 vs. last poll, 1/10-11)
Blunt 42 (-2)
Und 15 (+4)

In another matchup, Carnahan leads state Sen. Chuck Purgason 42-35. Blunt leads Purgason in a GOP primary matchup, 53-16. You can find more polling on the race here.

Carnahan is the daughter of Missouri's late Gov. Mel Carnahan and former Sen. Jean Carnahan, who took her husband's seat when he was posthumously elected in 2000. She boasts the strongest name recognition and favorable score of the group.

Favorable Ratings
Carnahan 40 / 36
Blunt 30 / 38
Purgason 7 / 14

President Obama has just a 43 percent approval rating in the Show Me State; 52 percent disapprove of his job performance. The proposed health care reform bill is very unpopular, supported by just 34 percent of Missourians and opposed by 55 percent.

"If Robin Carnahan had faced off against Roy Blunt in any election year between 1996 and 2008 she would likely have won given her superior popularity," PPP's Dean Debnam says in a polling memo. "But 2010 has the potential to be an extremely good year for Republicans, and that's made this race highly competitive."

But the mood is different for another, more important reason for the Republican leaders gathering here -- they're celebrating big wins in New Jersey and Virginia weeks ago, and expecting that momentum will continue in 2010 when the battlefield grows considerably larger.

"This year there's a lot more smiles," RGA spokesman Mike Schrimpf said. "The focus among the governors last year was how are we going to win back a majority of governorships. This year, that remains the focus. But it's always a lot more joyful when you're actually gaining members this year."

Twenty of 24 Republican governors are attending, in addition to Governors-elect Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell, and several candidates seeking office in 2010. The RGA plans to contrast what's going on in these Republican-lead states with the goings on in Washington, DC, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told reporters Tuesday evening.

"Unlike our Republican friends in DC, governors are able to implement effective, conservative policies that are gonna regain the trust in our party's ability to govern," he said. "We knew that there are Republicans that are concerned all across the country. What they're seeing out of the governors, and particularly what they're seeing out of RGA, is an organization that is being very effective and very efficient with their dollars."

Gov. Haley Barbour, the RGA chairman, said the organization expects to be able to do more to help its incumbents and challengers next year than in any previous cycle. The organization spent $13 million in New Jersey and Virginia, and has $25 million on hand as the next cycle begins, which he credited to an aggressive small donor effort that has allowed the group to be "less reliant on corporate money."

In that vein, Palin is still very much a part of the the RGA's 2010 plans. The group purchased a large supply of "Going Rogue" at a considerable discount, and will reward new donors with a copy signed by Palin herself.

"I suspect we're going to raise a whole lot of money with this," Barbour said. "She's mighty good to do this -- she was a great colleague."

The event is a showcase for all the governors, but particularly those who are building national profiles with an eye toward 2012. In addition to Barbour and Perry, Govs. Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal and Mitch Daniels will be featured as the group plans to discuss specifically the views of RGA members on the latest developments in Washington.

Speaking on Rush Limbaugh's radio show today about the results of the New York 23 election, Palin called Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman's apparent defeat evidence that, "If you're not the anointed one within the machine, sometimes you have a much tougher road to hoe." Limbaugh then asked about whether the former GOP VP nominee thought a third party would be viable.

"Ideally, sure, a third party or an independent party would be able to soar and thrive and put candidates forth and have them elected. But I don't think America is ready for that," she said. Palin said she didn't consider herself an "obsessive partisan," and also referred to her husband as being someone who was a registered independent but has "got more common sense conservatism than a whole lot of Republicans that I know."

"But to answer your question, I don't think the third party movement will be what's necessary to usher in some common sense conservative ideals," she repeated.

Palin added that independents would continue to move toward the Republican Party, as they did this November in New Jersey and Virginia, if Republicans focus on "just implementing common-sense, conservative solutions." And she said that she appreciates that her party hasn't shied from having "contested, aggressive, competitive primaries."

"We're not like this herd mentality, like a bunch of sheep, with the fighting instincts of sheep ... like some of the Democrat Party, where heaven forbid you take a stand and you oppose somebody within your own party because it's the right thing to do," she said. "Some in the other side, they're observing what goes on in the GOP and say, 'That's infighting and they can't get along and there's no consensus there.' No! This is healthy debate. Good competition that makes candidates work harder. It makes for a better product, if you will, at the end of the day. I appreciate that about our party."

Anyone who watched the 2008 presidential primaries might disagree that Democrats have a "herd mentality." But her comments nonetheless represent her first extended views on domestic and international politics beyond occasional Facebook notes, and come as she gets ready to kick off a multi-state book tour.

Palin was particularly eager to weigh in on national security, criticizing President Obama, though not by name, for "dithering and hesitation" on Afghanistan.

"We're gonna claim what Ronald Reagan claimed. Our motto's gonna be, we win, you lose," she siad. "The way that we do that is allow McChrystal to have the reinforcements that he's asking for in Afghanistan that sends the message to the terrorists over there that, now we're going to end this thing with our victory."

After the jump, Palin's views on health care, Iran and other issues.

We need to start facing Iran with tougher and tougher sanctions that need to be considered. ... We need to look at halting Iran's imports of refined petroleum products. They're quite reliant on imported gasoline. We need to use that hammer to wake up the leadership there too. Those are two big challenges that we have right now.

On Health Care:

There are so many questions unanswered. I don't like the idea in general of the federal government thinking it needs to take over health care, which essentially this is, and control one-sixth of our economy. Not when there are common sense solutions to meeting our health care challenges in our country, like alloying the intra- and interstate competition with insurers, tort reform, cutting down on the waste and fraud that the Obama administration insists if we did that would just pay for this ...

On green energy:

"I think there's a lot of snake-oil science involved in that, and somebody's making a whole lot of money off people's fears."

On climate change:

"I don't attribute all the changes to man's activities. I think that this is, in a lot of respects, cyclical, and the earth does cool and it warms. Our greatest challenge with energy is that we're not tapping into the abundant domestic supplies that God created right under foot."

On VP Biden saying it's more complicated than "Drill Baby Drill"

"What is complicated about tapping into abundant, safe, domestic supplies that could provide stability for our country and security for our country?"

General Election Matchup
Biden (D) 45 (+11 vs. last poll, 4/09)
Castle (R) 40 (-15)
Und 8 (unch)

Castle leads by 2.3 points in the RCP Average of Delaware Senate polling.

In this poll, Castle performs slightly better among Republicans than Biden does among Democrats, and holds a 5-point lead among independents. The problem for the state's lone Congressman and former governor is that there are 106,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the First State.

Susquehanna also attributes Castle's slippage to "negative publicity he received in the state after casting a 'no' vote for President Obama's health care bill in the U.S. Congress." That vote occurred just over 48 hours before the poll went into the field.

This survey of 850 registered voters was conducted November 10-15, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.36 percent.

General Election Matchups
Snyder (D) 44
Griffin (R) 43
Und 13

Snyder (D) 45
Meeks (R) 42
Und 13

Snyder (D) 44
Wallace (R) 42
Und 13

Snyder has an upside-down 42 percent job approval rating, with 46 percent disapproving. President Obama fares worse, with 41 percent approving and 52 percent disapproving.

Only 32 percent of district respondents support the health care bill, while 55 percent oppose. Still, 45 percent say Snyder's ideology is "about right" for the district, while 42 percent say he's too liberal. But 50 percent say the Democratic Congress is too liberal, while 39 percent say the GOP conference is too conservative.

"Vic Snyder's situation is pretty emblematic of the perils Democrats face going into 2010," said PPP's Dean Debnam in a release. "His district hasn't been competitive in a long time but his health care vote and Obama's unpopularity with his constituents has put him in a vulnerable position."

The survey of 400 voters was conducted November 11-13 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent.

Primary Election Matchup
Perry 46 (+8 vs. last poll, 9/16)
Hutchison 35 (-5)
Medina 4 (+1)
Not Sure 14 (-5)

Looking deeper, Rasmussen finds that Gov. Rick Perry's (R) advantage is among the more conservative voters in the primary electorate. He leads 52-30 percent among those who identify themselves as conservatives, while Hutchison leads among moderates and liberals.

Perry has ratcheted up his anti-Washington rhetoric of late, generating a banner headline on Drudge for saying this week that the Obama administration was "hell-bent" on socialism. That's proving to be a winning message in the race considering both candidates are very popular in their own right. Among these primary voters, Perry's job approval rating is 73 percent, and both have nearly identical fav/unfav ratings -- 75/24 for Perry, 75/23 for Hutchison.

The survey also asked if Hutchison should resign her Senate post in making a gov run, something she was expected to do but not yet indicated when. Sixty percent of primary voters said she should, while 26 percent said no.

The survey of 798 likely GOP primary voters was conducted November 11 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Based on recent polling, a shifting national mood and excellent candidate recruitment by the GOP, Republicans could be in position a year from now to win seats once held by three of the four most powerful elected officials in Washington. Should that happen, it wouldn't be at all surprising if states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut and Florida -- all of which Obama won last year -- elected Republicans as well.

In Illinois, the National Republican Senatorial Committee succeeded in recruiting Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) to give up his congressional district to run statewide. Meanwhile, Democrats -- including the White House -- were unable to convince state Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) to run, as she eventually opted for re-election. Running instead are Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman and Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson, who previously served as press secretary for disgraced governor Rod Blagojevich. Obama's appointed successor, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.), opted not to run for reelection.

Limited polling in the state has shown Giannoulias ahead of his primary opponents and statistically tied with Kirk, who is expected to win the GOP primary. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will likely receive substantial support from the White House and Democratic National Committee, as the prospect of losing the president's former Senate seat two years after he was elected president would be embarrassing.

Republicans scored a coup in Delaware with the recruitment of Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), who has won 11 statewide races including two for governor (in 1984 and 1988) and the past nine for the state's lone House seat. Biden won the seat for the seventh time in November 2008 -- when he was also elected vice president -- and Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), Biden's longtime chief of staff, was appointed to replace him. It was widely rumored that Kaufman, who will not run next year, would serve as a placeholder for Biden's son, state Attorney General Beau Biden, until the 2010 special election.

Castle has led Biden in the four polls released this year. However, the most recent one -- a DailyKos/Research 2000 survey out last month -- found Castle up by just a single point.

The third race of what could be a crushing trifecta for Democrats is in Nevada, where recent polling shows Majority Leader Harry Reid to be among the most vulnerable incumbent senators, despite the amount of power he wields in the Senate. Both of his potential Republican opponents -- former state party chair Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian, son of a famed UNLV basketball coach -- lead Reid by more than 5 points in general election matchups, and have led him in every poll that has been released.

Whoever takes on Reid will need to raise serious money in order to compete statewide, as Reid has a national network of donors and $8.7 million in the bank.

Still, the GOP is targeting Reid in hopes he will become the second Democratic leader in the Senate in six years to be defeated, following then-minority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who was knocked out of office in 2004 by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).

Losing these three seats would be particularly embarrassing to President Obama and his party just two years after capturing the White House and expanding majorities in Congress. Beyond the humiliating symbolism, however, the defeats would deliver a serious blow to the party's advantage in the Senate -- and more than likely be just a few of the Democratic losses on Election Day 2010.