That's a high water mark for him, as it says here. I think while Palin is compelling, she's still more of a "WTF" choice. Most people I've talked to are shocked if not perplexed that McCain picked her. Two Alaskan newspapers have questioned the choice and said she wasn't qualified.

McCain has run a campaign to try to win a daily news cycle in cheap ways. In the end, Obama had 38 million people watch probably the greatest speech of the last 50 years anyway. More people watched him than the opening ceremony of the Olympics, a Friday morning news dump where the big announcements made most people scratch their heads than anything doesn't trump 4 days of an excellent convention and an epic speech. Plus, we don't know the magnitude of his speech beyond television. This is a new world, look at all the internet views of that speech.

And also, this is still about Obama and McCain. If anything, Obama looks like a reasonable and smart person picking somebody like Biden as VP, at best, McCain looks like a risk taker, more likely he looks like someone with poor judgment.

This week, McCain isn't going to have the convention he wanted, it's good and bad. For one thing no matter how bad it gets they can always brush it off and say that Gustav was a factor. But if people don't buy that, McCain, who cannot top Obama's speech not even close, will look like yesterday's news. And we still have the debates, and Obama has a huge advantage simply standing on stage with McCain, who looks old, tired and angry, while he seems young, dynamic and hopeful.

This is the best it will get for Palin. She'll give a good speech, exceed expectations just by showing up at the debate and not drooling on herself, but she still has to get out there and get scrutinized every single day. The more you see the more the novelty wears off. And right now the novelty hasn't even made a dent in Obama's post convention bump. Likely the race will tighten up after this week's convention. But if McCain is down 5 points going into the debates, it won't look good for him.

Always remember, my fellow boxing fan H20Man is right, Obama is a counterpuncher. And a damn good one. When has he ever not countered everything that's been thrown at him? He's cool, unflappable and tough. Plus he has Biden who seems like a new man, and record Dem registration and turnout in a year that looks bad in general for Republicans. Just because it's been all Palin all the time among the Beltway folks, doesn't mean it's done all that much good for McCain. It's still The Big O's race to win or lose. And this guy is nothing if not a winner.


http://www.gallup.com/poll/109900/Gallup-D...