It is incredible, but the designation of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate seems to have totally obliterated Obama’s bounce from his convention and after his magnificent speech. Zogby actually has McCain two ahead and Rasmussen’s Friday-only data shows Obama only three up! This confirms what we have suspected — that the linkage of McCain and Bush was the weak link in Obama’s convention. By showing how different he is and by taking the step of choosing an independent, outspoken, gutsy, reformist candidate like Palin as vice president, McCain has shown how much he is the un-Bush. Bush chose Cheney. McCain chose Palin. That, apparently, says it all.
Palin, whom I know personally, is articulate and very bright. She has courage and defied the entire corrupt Republican establishment in Alaska, causing the resignation of the state party chairman and the attorney general and the defeat, in a Republican primary, of the governor (whose daughter is a senator). She is very impressive up close and has a freshness and newness in her perspective that reminds one of a cold, bracing, clear Alaskan wind!
I had expected that Obama’s bounce would be nullified after an entire week of the Republican convention. But now it’s happened in one day! In fact, we will never know how big Obama’s bounce was since his speech was late on Thursday and Palin was appointed during the day on Friday, so no evening polling was possible in between. My guess is that had there been a poll on Friday and Palin not chosen until Saturday, it would have recorded a 10-to-15-point Obama bounce. But that is gone with the wind!
This gigantic shift in voter support puts the postponement of the opening days of the Republican convention into a new perspective. If the hurricane turns out to be manageable and New Orleans does not, in Obama’s words, “drown,” it will be as effective for McCain as a good first day or two of a convention. How dramatic that the very location where Bush’s reputation fell apart could be the place for a Republican comeback. Granted, Gustav is a smaller storm than Katrina, but the reinforced levees and more comprehensive evacuation plans highlight the difference three years and a lot of lessons learned have made.
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Having no convention bounce must be a frustrating reality to the Obama Camp. It is interesting the the media has not reported this fact. It is actually gigantic news.
To date, the attacks by the Democrats and MSM against Governor Palin have backfired. She is unfit to be vice president, when she has more executive experience and more accomplishments than Obama? She is unfit to be vice president, because her teenage daughter is pregnant? These kinds of non-sequitur arguments strike most people as mean and desperate. And it reinforces the impression from Senator Obama’s acceptance speech that he is an angry and partisan man, not the post-partisan healer he once claimed to be.
It is interesting how the turn of events, and even mother nature, can change, at least for a moment, the political atmosphere. I don’t think by selecting Sarah Palin, McCain distanted himself from Bush. A good strategic choice, but the wrong woman. Instead of shattering the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, he just added a few more. I keep saying over and over; it was all about Hillary…and Ms. Palin will not fill those shoes of hopes for all of Hillary supporters that were left behind. McCain will get some of the votes, but his return on his investment with Ms. Palin will not provide enough….this is going to backfire so the Republicans and Novemeber will demonstrate just exactly why McCain made the right choice, but choose the wrong woman.
I have often said that the first women and/or first minority to be in the White House would have to be a Republican, much like it took Nixon to open relations with China.
As someone with a liberal mind and a conservative pocket book, I second Dick’s comment, the choice was “sweet.”
Yes we can win this thing!
It is unfortunate that we hear so little from Gov. Palin. There ae lots of folks who profess to know her, but the sound bites are few and far between. After a few years of experience as VP, the inexperience label will drop and she will be a political giant. It is stunning how easily some folks dismiss the level of expertise it takes to become a state governor. It takes more skill than marrying into politics.