The Depths of McCain-Palin Derangement

Readers will recall yesterday's post, "Leftists Attack GOP as "Ugly Americans." I suggested that left-wing partisans will sink to the gates of hell in attacking John McCain and Sarah Palin, a fact demonstrated by the left's reaction to the realization that the Alaskan Governor is the new feminist terminator.

The truth, of course, is that the ugliest Americans are those now smearing the McCain-Palin ticket.

It turns out, as Chas Martin chronicles, not surprisingly, that there are close to 50 rumors flying around the fever swamps of the leftosphere, viciously attacking Sarah Palin, with allegations from the debunked Bristol baby cover-up to vile the suggestions of book-burning fundamentalism. The list continues to grow, naturally, with the slurs and smears distributed by some of the biggest blogs on the left (with the mainstream media in tow).

So it should be no surprise to soon see photos like the one below at Andrew Sullivan's or at Daily Kos. That's right: Sullivan and Markos are not much better than the low-life scum who created a blog dedicated to exploiting Trig Palin: "I Miss My Mommy."

I've written a lot on left wing demonology, and the standard response is that conservatives are just as bad: "Go check out the comments at Red State or Little Green Footballs," is a common refrain.

Well don't believe it. Since the announcement of Sarah Palin as GOP vice-presidential running mate we've witnessed a literally non-stop effort of smear and demonization against Palin, an effort so angry and all-encompassing that the Clarence Thomas hearings look like a stroll at the county fair in retrospect.

Here's a sample "I Miss My Mommy" post, "Cain Make Vipe Resident":

I am so happy, Grampa 'Cain make Mommy Vipe Resident. Stopid Osbama so stupid. They say Mommy not vetted. What? Mommy no animal doctor. What, are they 'tarded?

The hat tip for the "I Miss My Mommy" pick up goes to Vince and Loon, who note:

Daily Kos and Democratic Underground have reached a new low. Their latest proud accomplishment is I Miss My Mommy, a website devoted to ridiculing Sarah Palin's son Trig for having Down syndrome.

Yep, this deed seems to be scraping the bottom, but the depths of the left-wing fever swamps are so far infinite, so just keep checking back at Sullivan's, Kos, and their well-represented allies, and we'll see something even more evil in no time.

Oh, and don't miss, Jeffrey Bell, "Why They Hate Her: Sarah Palin is a Smart Missile Aimed at the Heart of the Left."

Michigan in Play as Campaigns Begin Dash to Election

With the national party conventions concluded, and with the suspenseful wait for the vice-presidential announcements now over, the campaigns begin a 60-day dash to election day.

While much attention is being paid to national polling trends, over the next two months the nitty gritty action - analytical and political - will be at the state-by-state level, as the Democrats and the Republicans prepare to do battle in a handful of toss-up states that could decide the election.

Among the most competitive will be Michigan, the Big Blue state that looks to be in play for the GOP for the first time in two decades.

Newsweek's got Karl Rove's breakdown of the battleground states, and here's the blurb for Michigan:

The state is a key McCain pickup target. The Democratic Party is struggling - Governor Granholm raised taxes $1.5 billion last year and Detroit's mayor is fighting felony charges. McCain is counting on the votes of working class, mostly Roman Catholic Reagan Democrats and independents in eastern Michigan. His maverick image could also help with "soft" moderate Republicans in the Detroit suburbs. Obama must attract large turnout among blacks in Detroit's Wayne County and in the southern parts of Oakland County, along with support from college students. His challenge will be to hold on to blue-collar Democrats in Macomb County. Expect auto companies to press both candidates for $40 billion or more in government loans.

Note that Detroit's Mayor Kilpatrick resigned this week in a plea agreement reached after Governor Granholm mounted pressure for Kilpatrick's removal from office. The scandal holds clear implications for November, as the Motor City's known as a dependable Democratic stronghold. As Keith Naughton indicates:

Even with Kwame Kilpatrick in the slammer, Barack Obama will be dogged by the scandal that brought down Detroit's mayor. For starters, Kilpatrick won't be around to lead the get-out-the-vote effort in dependably Democratic Detroit, which could be decisive in the toss-up state of Michigan, where Obama clings to a slim lead over John McCain. But beyond the mechanical breakdown, Kilpatrick's salacious, headline-commandeering controversy has inflamed the racial tensions that have riven this region. Detroit is 81 percent black and the poorest city in America, according to new census data, while the surrounding suburbs are 81 percent white and include some of the most affluent enclaves in the country. Ever since the riots of 1967, Detroiters have divided themselves along racial lines, and politicians on both sides of the city's cultural fault line—the 8 Mile Road made famous by Eminem—have stoked racial fears to get elected. "This Kwame Kilpatrick mess has splattered over onto the Obama campaign at the worst possible time," says veteran Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle. "Kilpatrick's brand of leadership has fed into the worst stereotypes that white voters have about black leaders."

There won't be too much "community organizing" in Detroit this fall, it seems.

In any case, note as well that the Wall Street Journal's got a big piece on the stakes in Michigan for the general election: "McCain Makes a Run at Michigan, A Wavering Democratic Stronghold":

If John McCain becomes the nation's 44th president, it may be thanks to Michigan - a prize the Republicans think they can claim for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Michigan is a perennial must-win for Democratic candidates, as well as a bellwether for how the party will fare in nearby Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. This week, the Obama camp launched its first television ads targeted directly at Michigan voters. One, titled "Revitalize" accuses McCain of "selling out" Michigan auto workers. Spending on TV is a tacit acknowledgment the Democrats consider Michigan competitive this year.

Michigan is home to the original "Reagan Democrats," white, working-class voters who swung Republican. Today, on paper, conditions here favor the Democrats. Unemployment stands at 8.5%, the nation's highest. Michigan's home-foreclosure rate is twice the national average, which should make it easy for Sen. Obama to campaign against a Republican who stumbled when asked how many houses he owns. Democrats have won the state in four out of the past five presidential races.

However, Sen. Obama is the one who might face an uphill battle. For starters, he chose not to participate in Michigan's primary in January - a decision that now deprives his campaign of a ready-made network of supporters. (Michigan held its primary earlier than the national Democratic Party wanted, so Sen. Obama and several others stayed off the ballot in solidarity with the party.) At the same time, Sen. McCain plays well among moderate Republicans and independents who dislike George W. Bush, whom Sen. McCain beat handily in the party's 2000 Michigan primary.

Michigan also has some of the most complex race relations north of the Mason-Dixon line. "Michigan is a challenge for any Democratic candidate," says Amy Chapman, the head of the Obama campaign here. "Everyone thinks it's blue. But you have to work hard to make it blue."

While the Obama campaign hopes to pick up a handful of reliably Republican states like Colorado in November, the flip-side is also true: The McCain campaign could win the White House by picking off a few traditional Democratic states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Minnesota.

Recent Michigan statewide polls indicate a tight race, although post-GOP convention surveys may show a surge of support for the McCain ticket following the intense extravaganza of the Sarah Palin vice-presidential rollout; and especially noteworthy is that the GOP represents change for Michigan voters, which will be especially true now that a moose-eating mommy-maverick's joined the ticket (moose-burgers are hip in Michigan).

So far, McCain and Palin have received a warm Michigan welcome, certainly a lot better than they're likely to get in nearby Chicago from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Sarah Palin's Parenting Choices Come Under Attack

There's been an eruption of crude sexism following Sarah Palin's nomination as the GOP vice-presidential running mate.

Most of the gender-related criticism of Palin so far has come from radical feminists angry that a conservative Alaska Governor with five kids may well become President of the United States. But a particularly demeaning sexist double-standard is afloat as well, suggesting, essentially, that Palin's sacrificing nuturing motherhood for a high-powered political career.

A Boston Globe article yesterday practically turned Palin's career choices into a scandal:

The decades-old debate over motherhood and work is back, reignited nanoseconds after John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.

It's raging everywhere from the blogosphere to the workplace. Consider what Adena Cohen-Bearak of Needham - a mother, blogger, and self-described feminist - had to say this week in her "MotherThoughts" blog: "Palin (who is 44) has 5 kids . . . ranging from 18 to 4 or 5 MONTHS old (the baby happens to have Downs). I don't really understand how she can be GOVERNOR with all those kids to deal with, never mind Vice President of the COUNTRY!"

It's not just blogging moms who are outraged at Palin's take-no-prisoners mothering style.

It turns out that Howard Gutman, a member of Barack Obama's national campaign finance committee, attacked Palin for alleged parental neglect, and Sally Quinn at the Washington Post joined in with this criticism:

Not only do we have a woman with five children, including an infant with special needs, but a woman whose 17-year-old child will need her even more in the coming months. Not to mention the grandchild. This would inevitably be an enormous distraction for a new vice president (or president) in a time of global turmoil.

These are rank attacks, and opportunistic in that they're coming primarily - though not exclusively - from the left. And this is a double-standard that's not going over well with a good lot of voters.

Here's the response of Sandra Summers, a lecturer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill:

So, if John McCain gets elected, Sarah Palin will have three young children in her charge and a demanding career to boot ("Palin's Family Life Moves to Center Stage," Campaign '08, Sept. 2). Big whoop, so do millions of other unsung American women. I raised two great children, taught, earned a Ph.D. and ran my household with no outside help. I still had time to volunteer at church, go to my kids' games, even watch TV. Unlike the majority of moms, Sarah Palin won't have to bother with shopping, cooking or cleaning because she'll have staff to take care of those chores. In my book, that almost makes her a woman of leisure.

Also, Elizabeth Bobe Barron, from Panama City, Florida, asks this question:

Why didn't anyone ask Mr. Biden to stay home and care for his young, motherless sons rather than take his seat in the U.S. Senate? Apparently, I am going against the trend because I am a pro-choice Hillary supporter who will be voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin in November.

There's some debate as to who'll be harmed more by the gendered backlash, the Democrats or the Republicans?

But as I've noted before, Sarah Palin's redifining feminism for the current age, and the old-school women's liberationist (and their Democratic allies) are being left in her dust.

See also, "Politics and Parenting: Assessing How Gov. Palin Handles the Balance."

GOP Campaigns Against Democrats as Fringe Party

The Los Angeles Times reports that the message from this week's GOP convention is that the Republicans plan a culture-war campaign that will paint the Democrats as a fringe party:

Speaker after speaker at this week's Republican National Convention defended small towns from the perceived slights of urban elites. They talked of working people, and ridiculed those with the time to become "community organizers." They railed against the media, Hollywood and the Washington cocktail circuit.

Cultural affinities, which President Bush played on heavily to paint 2004 Democratic nominee John F. Kerry as elite and out of touch, are now central to the campaign strategy of GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

The Arizona senator appeared to float above the culture wars Thursday night in a nomination acceptance speech that criticized "partisan rancor" and promoted his history of working with Democrats. And he is an unlikely standard-bearer for the forces of family values, given his admissions over the years of his failures as a husband, or for the advocates of small-town living, with his millionaire wife and multiple homes.

But this week's events demonstrated that McCain's campaign has settled on its final-stretch strategy to defeat Barack Obama: portraying Republicans as in sync with mainstream America and Democrats as the cultural fringe.

The strategy is inherently appealing, but not without big risks, according William Schneider. He argues that big issues face the electorate this year, and if policy concerns dominate voter decision-making in the end, the GOP's in trouble. Conversely, if personalities and values dominate, McCain will likely win.

I'd add, to the contrary, that given how overdetermined a Democratic victory in November has looked all year, McCain's taking a path of victory to the White House - that is, culture, patriotism, and values can beat the party of recycled beatniks, community organizers, and the netroots fringe.

Indeed, the selection of Sarah Palin may be better than even McCain and his advisors imagined. The left has gone absolutely ballistic in trying to smear her, literally from day one, when Daily Kos launched the baby cover-up allegations. Since then Democratic partisans have been working non-stop digging dirt to bury the GOP.

Apparently, the "community organizer" meme in particular has struck a nerve. Byron York argues that Palin's take down of Obama's Chicago organizing experience means that the Democratic nominee will now exclusively refer to Palin by her appropriate title as the Governor of Alaska, rather than a "small town mayor." The experience meme has cut so deep that Ezra Klein is arguing that "community organizer" is the new "uppity" (and before that "audacious" was the new "presumptuous," and presumptuous was the new uppity, and so forth and so on, ad infinitum).

So we see once again, a cutting takedown of Obama's woefully lacking experience is turned around as a racial slur. Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan and his minions are picking apart every possible nook and cranny of the Palin family life for salacious tidbits of scandal-fodder. For example, Track Palin? He's no patriot:

Meanwhile, even Howard Kurtz isn’t above mentioning reports that Governor Palin’s eldest son Track enlisted in the military not out of patriotism, but as a means of avoiding prison time that resulted from an arrest for vandalism and possession and possible distribution of cocaine.

Notice how TRex offers no links to said reports of Track Palin's (non-existent) arrest for "vandalism" and "possible" distribution of cocaine (and Kurtz mentions no such thing).

These are the desperate lengths to which the left will go to in smearing the GOP.

Barack Obama's an inherently weak candidate. He won the Democratic nomination not because he ran a superior campaign or because he had a better message, but because primary and caucus rules favored him.

Democrats and the hard-left partisans know this explicitly or implicitly, and they're doing every thing they can to attack, disrupt, smear, and slur the Republicans - using any all all methods, no matter how devious or underhanded.

No worries, though. This is a culture war between a lofty, softy Chicago orator and his faux-Scranton, Beltway-insder running mate, and two redoubtable Western-states warriors, with Sarah Palin packing a lot of heat.

Leftists Attack GOP as "Ugly Americans"

To follow up my previous entry on Sarah Palin's surge in public opinion, it turns out that Gallup's new tracking numbers see John McCain cutting Barack Obama's lead in the presidential horse race in half since the start of the GOP convention.

What's particulary interesting, of course, has been the left's reaction to the Palin nomination. It's not just the initial unfounded smears alleging that Palin covered-up her daughter's preganancy (that Bristol Palin was Trig's mom), but also the broader ideological challenge the Alaska Governor has presented to the postmodern left (including the radical feminists and the "P.A.N.T.H.E.R.'s):

Apparently, Governor Palin fits right into the left's program of anti-GOP demonization, which can be seen around the leftosphere of late.

Here's Chris Bowers, for example, on how "Palin Satisfies Conservative Persecution Lust:

Palin has grown popular among the conservative base primarily because she has been able to satisfy the conservative persecution lust that is at the core of the American conservative system of belief. Without an evil, stereotyped, identity group out to attack them, there is nothing holding together the conservative system of belief.

At the Huffington Post, John Seery argues that Sarah Palin's "The Face of the Ugly American":

I know, I know: Sarah Palin is receiving rosy plaudits for her speech last night....

My honest-to-goodness visceral reaction was quite otherwise. What I saw on that stage was the personification of small-minded smugness, an utter lack of humility, a kind of self-righteous entitlement based on little more than puffed-up narrowness. She struck me not as plucky but, rather, as stunningly immodest--to the point of arrogance. Some people are arrogant and maybe deserve to be. They know it, and flaunt it, while everyone else thinks they are jerks. But there's another kind of arrogance, perhaps harder to spot at first, an arrogance that apparently doesn't even recognize itself as such, a sanctified, self-satisfied presumptuousness that flows from sheer naïveté about oneself and the world and manifests itself in giddy ambition.

Palin, in other words, is a brash, white trash hick, but don't miss the rest of Seery's post.

Seery argues John McCain's an "ugly American" as well. But he's not the first: Cernig at Newshoggers attacked McCain last week as "the ugliest American":

Out of all the ugly Americans of the modern hard right, John McCain is rising as the star.

The ugly American meme surrounding the 2008 GOP ticket represents, essentially, the latest example of the left's psychiatric paranoia at the Republican Party's personalities and politics, which one might clinically diagnose as a new "McCain-Palin Derangement Syndrome" (see here and here for partial recognition of the malady).

Indications of McCain-Palin Derangement include the attacks on the Arizona Senator as representing "four more years" of the George W. Bush administration (which triggered the initial specification of this ideological psychiatric syndrome), as well as the slurs against Governor Palin as "a rightwing-Christian anti-choice extremist."

If the nation's indeed witnessing an election contest deciding final cultural supremacy over "the two Americas," the utter demonization of the McCain-Palin ticket we're now seeing will be just a preview of left's evil partisanship in the couple of months ahead.

Sarah Palin More Popular Than Barack Obama!

Bloggers are among the most partisan people around, but sometimes amid all the ideological rancor, one has to recognize the achievements of the other side. I wished Barack Obama congratulations after he secured his party's nomination, for example.

In the case of Sarah Palin, the GOP vice-presidential nominee, the left's recognition of her assets is grudging, if at all. There's been speculation all week, amid all the controversies, that Palin's nomination would be a drag on the ticket, and that the hyped-up allegations of scandal would sink the GOP. Even Republican Peggy Noonan confided, "It's over."

Kyle Moore, at Comments From Left Field, in his comments on Palin's potential impact, denigrated the Alaska Governor's acceptance speech:

Republicans loved it, but this was not the kind of speech that seemed designed towards attracting swing voters and fence-sitting Democrats. This was Palin’s opportunity to introduce herself to America as a whole, and what America as a whole viewed was a woman who was very light on policy, who didn’t go very far towards telling us who she was, or what she will do for the country, but was very heavy handed in attacking the opposition.

I know that negativity works a lot of the time, but not all of the time, and of the millions of viewers that Palin pulled last night, I will be very interested to see how many were turned off by what was a largely vitriolic speech.

There's more at the link (if you can get through Moore's clunky prose).

Moore goes on to recite undocumented "anectodal evidence" suggesting that Palin left "independents and swing voters" unimpressed.

Well, it turns out that Palin's leaving quite an impression on the American public after all. According to Rasmussen's new survey, Citizen Sarah's more popular the Barack Obama, aka "The One":

A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Now, following a Vice Presidential acceptance speech viewed live by more than 40 million people, Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom.

The figures include 40% with a Very Favorable opinion of Palin and 18% with a Very Unfavorable view (full demographic crosstabs are available for Premium Members). Before her acceptance speech, Palin was viewed favorably by 52%. A week ago, 67% had never heard of her.

The new data also shows significant increases in the number who say McCain made the right choice and the number who say Palin is ready to be President. Generally, John McCain’s choice of Palin earns slightly better reviews than Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden.

Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Palin’s favorable ratings are now a point higher than either man at the top of the Presidential tickets this year. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%.

Rasmussen also reports:

Fifty-one percent (51%) of all voters now believe that McCain made the right choice when he picked Palin to be his running mate while 32% disagree. By way of comparison, on the night after Biden gave his acceptance speech, 47% said that Obama made the right choice.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of Republicans say that McCain made the right choice while just 69% of Democrats said the same about Obama.

Among unaffiliated voters, 52% said that McCain made the right choice for his running mate and 45% said the same about Obama.

Rasmussen's daily tracking poll also finds the presidential horse race in a statistical tie, with Obama leading McCain 46 to 45 percent.

We won't know the full effect of Palin's impact on the race, or that of John McCain's acceptance speech, until early next week.

In the meantime, the early left-wing dismissals of McCain's judgment are badly off the mark.

McCain to Stand and Fight for America

As I predicted in my pre-speech entry, John McCain delivered a solid acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention last night - solid, but not spectacular.

As Tom the Redhunter says in the comments, "McCain's speech was good but not great. In other words, typically him."

Typical, in this case, is why McCain is the right man for the times.

The speech began haltingly, punctuated by the unwelcomed drama of Code Pink protesters disrupting the proceedings. But as he continued, McCain built up to his trademark story of personal sacrifice to a cause greater than one's self:

I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.

I'm going to fight for my cause every day as your President. I'm going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I'm an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me.

Fight for what's right for our country.

Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.

Fight for our children's future.

Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.

Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God Bless you.

As some readers may recall, I've been excited about McCain's candidacy since he announced the formation of his presidential exploratory committee in November 2006.

For me, a McCain presidency has always been about standing up for goodness in the world, and goodness in one's heart. McCain's stalwart backing of the Iraq war was right from the beginning, and has shown the trueness of his character and judgment. And this week's sensational rollout of Sarah Palin as vice-presidential running mate has rekindled the enthusiasm of McCain's campaign that's been frequently lost in the long slog following the primaries.

McCain was down for the count this time last year, losing his frontrunner status to more exciting competitors. But the excitement's back, and while the Democrats and leftists will attack McCain's speech as wooden and recycled, that's the man the GOP nominated - sure and steady - and that's the man who's now got a surprisingly good chance to win on November 4.

McCain Speech to Build on Palin Momentum

John McCain is known for his wooden speaking style, so naturally there are some diminished expectations for his speech tonight at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center (which follows on the heels of Sarah Palin's energizing address to the GOP convention last night).

I would caution folks not to lower their sights too low: What McCain lacks in delivery he makes up in moral clarity. Indeed, I've always considered McCain to be a powerful speaker, offering some of the most moving addresses of the current era. For example, I frequently return to McCain's ringing words from 2006 at the New School University's commencement ceremony in New York:

I supported the decision to go to war in Iraq. Many Americans did not. My patriotism and my conscience required me to support it and to engage in the debate over whether and how to fight it. I stand that ground not to chase vainglorious dreams of empire; not for a noxious sense of racial superiority over a subject people; not for cheap oil--we could have purchased oil from the former dictator at a price far less expensive than the blood and treasure we've paid to secure those resources for the people of that nation; not for the allure of chauvinism, to wreak destruction in the world in order to feel superior to it; not for a foolishly romantic conception of war. I stand that ground because I believed, rightly or wrongly, that my country's interests and values required it.

Sarah Palin, in her speech last night, lauded McCain for his superior judgment and strategic vision. McCain will pick up on Palin's momentum, and we'll see a powerful acceptance speech and a rousing reception from the convention delegates. McCain will draw sharp contrasts between himself and Barack Obama, focusing particularly on his unparalleled sacrifice to our nation's security.

CNN offers a preview of what to expect:

Sen. John McCain will formally accept his party's nomination for president Thursday night, a day after his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, delivered a rousing speech at the Republican convention in St. Paul.

McCain is set to speak during the 10 p.m. ET hour and will lay out his vision for America.

Overnight, crews have transformed the stage at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, so that delegates will surround McCain when he addresses the convention. The change will give the speech a feel more like the town hall-style meetings the Republican presidential nominee is known for.

During his speech, McCain hopes to show that a 72-year-old candidate can be an agent for change in Washington -- a theme he has hit on repeatedly at smaller venues along the campaign trail.

"What I have got to do is show people the differences in how we are going to change Washington and America and the differences in our positions and portray them in a substantive and hopefully a fairly eloquent fashion," McCain told CNN earlier this summer.

James Pethokoukis lays out the policy challenges:

Can John McCain give a good speech? Indeed, he can. His 2000 and 2004 speeches to the Republican National Convention were pretty compelling. (The former, though, may rank as the most melancholy ever given at a political convention. The closing line was less than rousing, "And I am haunted by the vision of what will be.") Both played to his strong suits. One focused on government reform, the other foreign policy. And those two subjects will surely be important themes in what he says tonight.

But McCain will have to do something else: Persuasively outline an agenda to restore America to prosperity. That was one thing Sarah Palin did not fully accomplish last night. He needs to go beyond showing empathy to middle class folks. He needs to demonstrate how his economic plan will make their lives better and give them the tools to make their lives better. And the key to that, I think, is energy. High oil and gas prices have been a pernicious tax on the economy, slowing growth and reducing real incomes. As McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin told me here in St. Paul, "Americans have elevated energy to their number one issue."

It's an issue that Team McCain thinks will be key to winning the White House. And polls show that Americans seem to like McCain's "all of the above" approach to increasing our energy supplies and lowering gas prices.

Sarah Palin was former chair of Alaska's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission prior to becoming the state's chief executive. With the Alaska Governor on board, McCain's well-positioned to make the case for expertise and ideas on energy issues.

The latest polls, moreover, show the presidential horse race settling-back to the dead-heat terroritory that marked the presidential campaign in mid-August.

CBS News reports that the race is now even at 42 percent. A McCain stemwinder in St. Paul, coming on top of Sarah Palin's momentum today, will set the GOP on extremely strong footing as the post-Labor Day campaigning gets fully under way.

Neilsen Estimates Show Palin Convention Blockbuster

Allahpundit at Hot Air makes the case for a "ratings blowout" for Day 3 at the Republican National Convention.

It turns out that 37.2 million Americans watched Alaska Governor Sarah Palin make her prime-time acceptance speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

I'm on the e-mail list at Neilsen Ratings, which has sent its audience estimates for Day 3:

Nielsen just released its ratings for Day 3 of the GOP convention. Some highlights:

• The Sarah Palin speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just a 1.1 million viewers short of Barack Obama’s record-breaking speech on Day 4 of the Democratic Convention. The Palin speech was carried on only six networks while the Obama speech was carried on ten (including BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo).
• Palin attracted a large female audience (19.5 million women, or 4.9 million more than Day 3 of the Democratic Convention).
• Ratings for viewers 55+ (25.2) continue to be about ten times higher than for teens (2.2)
• Day 3 for the GOP attracted more Hispanic viewers (1.4 million) than Day 3 of the Democratic Convention (1.2 million), even though Univision and Telemundo did not carry the speech.

See also the Nielsen Wire, "Palin Triggers RNC Ratings Spike."

Note, importantly, that Palin's convention address was carried on just six networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.

Barack Obama's speech last week at Mile High Stadium in Denver was carried on ten networks (including BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo).

The Republican Party has clearly captured the nation's imagination and interest this week - and John McCain's nomination of Sarah Palin as vice-presidential running mate is looking to be the kind of media game-changer that analysts argued was badly needed on the Democratic side.

Sarah Palin Rocks!

Sarah Palin's speech last night at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center is sending tsunami waves through the political establishment. The insiders' expectations this morning suggest that Palin will dominate the news cycle throughout September (and Barack Obama is "yesterday's news").

Americans witnessed Palin's innate skills last night. As Newsweek's cover story this week noted:

She is fearless and natural, and it's no wonder she charmed a fierce contrarian like John McCain.

Jay Nordlinger picked up on that theme in his reaction to Palin's stemwinder:

She’s one of the most talented politicians in America — a natural. You can’t learn that kind of thing. You simply have it (or you don’t). I suppose Sarah Palin will get better as a politician. But she’s damn good now. She will not hit her stride. She entered with her stride.

But Roger L. Simon's kudos perfectly capture the Palin prairie fire sweeping the nation:

In all my years writing movies, going to drama school, etc., I have almost never seen anything so dramatic. It was the rebirth of Frank Capra for our times - Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington. This woman is a star and a star of the American kind we have not seen for years. She really is born live from a Capra movie, from the days Hollywood told stories about the greatness of our country. I don’t agree with her about everything but so what? I don’t agree with anybody about everything except, luckily for me, my wife. But Sarah Palin is a force of nature. Like a Jimmy Stewart character channeled by Claudette Colbert.

The big losers tonight are obvious: Joe Biden, who will look like hackopathropus erectus next to her, a dinosaur out of the Washington everybody hates, and Hillary Rodham Clinton who, I would bet anything, was staring at her television set in horror tonight at the possible first woman president of the United States - and it’s not her!

Palin's performance was so powerful that her address has thrown the left into fits of apoplexy. Indeed, John Dickerson's article this morning boasts the catchy subtitle: "Why the Smiling, Sudden, Relentless Sarah Palin Should Scare Democrats" (although Dickerson's way too quick to suggest Palin's a one-hit wonder).

In a new pre-speech survey, Rasmussen found a majority of 51 percent agreeing that "reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage."

While Obama still holds a lead in Gallup's latest tracking poll, the McCain-Palin prairie fire will double its scorching power after McCain's acceptance speech tonight. Early focus-groups survey's indicate that "McCain's selection of the first-term Alaska governor will help his campaign," so by the weekend it's likely that whatever bounce the Democrats picked up in Denver will have evaporated.

It's been a long time in American politics since the public's been so rocked by a vice-presidential nomination, and this election's just now getting started!

Image Credit: Flopping Aces

Sarah Palin's New Feminism

Gloria Steinem, in today's Los Angeles Times, claims that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is "an unqualified woman" whose "divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention."

Steinem claims that Palin "shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton," and that for Democratic women to "vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, 'Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs.'"

As I've noted before, John McCain's nomination of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate has thrown the radical feminist movement into a debilitating identity crisis. For years I recall women saying that what they really want is the same opportunity for professional success as men. Now, though, when we have a conservative woman who really does "have it all," women's activists are mobilizing against her with a vehemence of a reverse-Suffragette movement.

Folks on the left may be shocked to realize that the culture wars are back, and Sarah Palin represents the vanguard of the "new feminism," as Robin Abcarian points out in her essay on Palin's challenge to the women's liberation movement:

The topic was Sen. John McCain's vice presidential pick, and talk show host Laura Ingraham was on a roll. Accepting an award from the Republican National Coalition for Life on behalf of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was under wraps working on her convention speech, Ingraham chastised anyone who would suggest that Palin is not up to the job.

As a pro-life working mother of five, including a special needs infant and a pregnant 17-year-old, Ingraham said, "Sarah Palin represents a new feminism. . . . And there is no bigger threat to the elites in this country than a woman who lives her conservative convictions"....

Talking with reporters Monday, McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt took offense at the idea that Palin might have trouble juggling the vice presidency and her family obligations.

"Frankly," he said, "I can't imagine that question being asked of a man. I think it's offensive, and I think a lot of women will find it offensive."

In an interview Wednesday with Katie Couric, prospective first lady Cindy McCain defended Palin and echoed Schmidt: "She will be a marvelous vice president, and she is already a marvelous mother. . . . I think most of the people asking the questions wouldn't be asking this if it were a man."

Later, Cindy McCain nodded strenuously when the Wednesday keynote speaker, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, reacted with outrage to the question of Palin's balancing act.

"When do they ever ask a man that question?" he asked.

Palin's rise to the heights of national politics is nothing short of revolutionary. As Kathleen Parker argues:

Should Palin and McCain prevail come November, feminism can curtsy and treat herself to a hard-earned vacation. The greatest achievement of feminism won’t be that a woman reached the vice presidency, but that a woman no longer needed feminists to get there.

Indeed, and thus we can see why Steinem's so angrily ruffled at the rise of Sarah Palin as America's true feminist role model.

Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times

Citizen Sarah Storms Small-Town America!

Sarah Palin, in her acceptance speech tonight to the Republican National Convention, exceeded expectations with a winning, combative address that set the table for John McCain's speech tomorrow night, and laid down a challenge to her antagonists and detractors: I've come a long way, dude, and you ain't seen nothin' yet!

The New York Times reports:

After days of mounting questions about her qualifications, Gov. Sarah Palin rallied the Republican National Convention tonight by touting her small-town government experience and ridiculing concerns about whether she is up to the job of vice president.

“Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown,” Ms. Palin said. “And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”

The remark was a not-so-veiled shot at the career of Senator Barack Obama, who began his public service as a community organizer in Chicago.

In spirited remarks that were embraced by a crowd that was thirsty to learn more about her, Ms. Palin also took on what she portrays as an elite media establishment unwilling to accept that her government service in a small town and a sparsely populated state gives her the resume to serve at the highest levels of the federal government.

“I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone,” she said in her remarks. “But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion – I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

At the conclusion of her address, Senator John McCain joined her on stage and asked the cheering crowd, “Don’t you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States?

With many of the Republicans gathered here already angry at the intense spotlight that has been put on Governor Palin and her family, the rebuke of the media and her critics found a warm reception in the Xcel Energy Center.

Anticipating a strong performance by the governor, Democrats quickly countered the idea that tonight’s appearance was a test of the vice presidential candidate, saying instead it was a reflection of Senator John McCain’s judgment in selecting her.

After tonight, if there was ever any doubt, McCain's judgment looks shrewdly decisive.

Palin spoke for people all across the country with an aggressive shot across the Democratic ticket:

I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involved.

(APPLAUSE)

I guess - I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

(APPLAUSE)

I might add that, in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they're listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

(APPLAUSE)

No, we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

Barack Obama is wiping his brow right now! And Biden better be ready for that vice-presidential debate!

The McCain campaign's storming the nation, from small towns across the country, from Wasilla to the White House in November.

Photo Credit: New York Times

Palin Wins the Google Primary!

This just in from FiveThirtyEight, "Guess Who's a Celebrity Now?"

Since her name was announced as John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin has generated more US-based internet search traffic than Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Michael Phelps and Barack Obama combined:

I've actually noticed this trend. My blog Google's well, for some reason, and for the past few days I've been averaging over 1500 unique visitors, with at least three-fourths of that from Sarah Palin hits on Google.

Go down and check my Extreme Tracker and my Sitemeter on the sidebar and you'll see.

Palin wins the Google primary!

Image Credit: FiveThirtyEight

What Does Peggy Noonan Know About Sarah Palin?

I often enjoy reading Peggy Noonan's commentaries, but I don't normally post her essays because ... well, sometimes they seem carbon-dated from the Reagan years, with all due respect.

It's not that her ideas are suspect - indeed, Noonan's offfered some of the most incisive analyses on the immediacy of immigration reform back in 2006. It's just that when I read Noonan I feel like Tip O'Neill's the Speaker of the House, and not Nancy Pelosi.

This is not ageism, by the way. Politics is more partisan nowadays, and sometimes I wonder if Noonan believes shes still back writing speeches for the Gipper. She's got an Irish gentility that's wonderful, but that style appears more at home at the Weekend Journal page at WSJ than out among the rough and tumble of the blogosphere.

Again, don't get me wrong. I like Noonan. I am perplexed, though, with her hot-mic comments today suggesting John McCain's toast with his selection of Sarah Palin as running mate.

The video's here, but check the transcript as well:

Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.
(cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --

PN: It's over.

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --

MM: They're all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.

Interestingly, almost inexplicably, Noonan's got an essay today arguing that John McCain and Sarah Palin spell trouble for the American left.

So why her hot-mic contra analysis? Just pundits being pundits?

Perhaps, but the election's far from "over" just because of some controversy surrounding Palin's appointment as vice-presidential running mate. We'll know more tonight, of course, but I'm confident from watching Palin last Friday, and given the intervening media attention dominating the weekend's political cycle, that the Alaska Governor's going to give a powerful statement on the historic importance of her candidacy, combined with a ringing defense of both her families traditional values and personal decision-making.

Thomas Lifson's essay, "Sarah Palin and the Two Americas," offered one the best analyses of the Palin personality I've seen yet:

She has the rarest of qualities: authenticity. Media and Beltway types can't fathom what that is. It goes right over their heads. Not even on the radar screen. Her multiple facets -- beauty queen, moose hunter, mother, member of an Assembly of God Church, and ferocious reformer of corrupt politics may baffle sophisticates, but ordinary Americans see all the pieces fitting together, and they recognize a type of person they know and love.

Think of Marge Gunderson, the fictional chief of police of Brainerd, Minnesota in the Oscar-winning movie Fargo, taken as a comic send-up by the swells in New York and Hollywood, with her Midwestern twang (shared by Sarah Palin), funny hat, and kitsch-artist husband. The kind of woman who probably rides snowmobiles with her husband, for crying out loud. Yet in the end, Marge Gunderson solved the murder despite the sneers of her betters in the Big City (Minneapolis), and won the hearts of movie audiences. Americans like their heroines full of common sense and spunk.

Sarah Palin is the ultimate All-American Girl, beautiful but not glamorous, powerful but unpretentious, high-powered but down-to-earth, a reformer who speaks up while others cower in fear of rocking the boat. Like Ronald Reagan, she can reach right through the television camera into people's minds and hearts. We recognize one of us.

The left, so wrapped in artifice and fakery, are driven crazy by this. Her behavior appears bizarre, inexplicable. In their minds, she is a disaster and they pretend to be gleeful, asking when McCain will dump her. All while panicking, because they can see the energized GOP base and the failure of Barack Obama to garner the ten-to-fifteen point post-convention bounce to be expected after his speech before the multimillion-dollar Greek temple set and fireworks at Invesco Field only 5 days ago. Those who planned the classical Greek theatrical stage never for second contemplated the possibility of a deus ex machina named Sarah.

Neither has Peggy Noonan, unfortunately.

Sarah Palin's Political Experience

Here's the new McCain ad buy on Sarah Palin's political experience:

The Politico has the background story, via Memeorandum:

Mounting a ferocious defense of his embattled running mate, John McCain said he is buying a TV ad arguing that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has more experience than the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama.

In an effort to rev up conservatives, a campaign statement issued a list of critical media mentions that it called “smears” of Palin, who speaks in prime time at the convention Wednesday night.

The campaign announced: “The McCain campaign will launch a television ad directly comparing Gov. Palin’s executive experience as a governor who oversees 24,000 state employees, 14 statewide cabinet agencies and a $10 billion budget to Barack Obama’s experience as a one-term junior senator from Illinois.”

The ad is what the campaign calls “a forward-leaning effort to counter the shameless smears that have prevailed during Gov. Palin’s introduction to the American voter.”

Senior adviser Steve Schmidt gave Politico a statement saying the campaign will have no more comment about the vetting process, which was the subject of more critical coverage in Wednesday morning’s papers...

Check the link for Schmidt's statement.

But see Howard Kurtz's piece at the Washington Post as well, where he reports:

I've talked to many political professionals over the years who were mad at the media, or me in particular.

But I've never quite had a conversation like the one Tuesday night with Steve Schmidt.

He was absolutely furious as he unloaded on the journalistic community for, in his view, unfairly savaging Sarah Palin.

Sure, it is in his interest to try to get the press to tone things down. But Schmidt - a hard-headed, no-nonsense, on-message strategist - really sounded shell-shocked. And so he was saying things on the record that senior aides usually say only under a cloak of anonymity.

Apparently, Schmidt says Sarah Palin's "under seige" by the waves of media speculation on the alleged teenage pregnancy cover-up, not to mention every other unhinged leftist smear that gets pick up as "mainstream" news by the press.

Well, it's double-standard time all over the place (here and here, for example).

Sarah Palin Takes on Beltway Media Elite

Jules Crittenden's got a morning roundup of news and commentary on Sarah Palin's big night at the Republican National Convention:

Crittenden links to his employer's piece, "GOP Ready to Rumble," and offers chagrin at his journalistic brethren's anti-Palin attackocracy:

It gets a little embarrassing sometimes, being an ink-stained wretch, when you see the way the other scribblers can’t stop piling on one and can’t stop worshipping the other. Here’s a great Dem talking point, compliments of the Washington Post: Palin slashed funding for teen moms. Not a peep on what the increase was, what the money was actually for, what else she might have slashed, whether the program is actually worth a damn or well managed, or anything else resembling context. Maybe it was the horrible, meanspirited act of a hypocritical pol, but with no indication anyone bothered to ask any of those questions, who knows? A little shoddy. Hang on, here we go. New media makes old media look bad again. Via Malkin: Slashed line item was a threefold increase.

Then there’s the rampant lefty sexism. Even some of my own pals can’t help themselves. The funny part is how they think a couple days of partisan squawking will be enough to force her out. Anyway, tonight we hear from the vice-presidential candidate who has the power to induce fits of apoplexy, and then, maybe, we’ll get a sense of whether actual voters share the ire.

The Wall Street Journal picks up on the theme, directing covering fire at the inside the Beltway media crowd's anti-Palin mysogyny:

Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain's veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose a threat to their coronation of Barack Obama and the return of Camelot-on-the-Potomac....

This is the same media whose chant for weeks - no, months - has been "let McCain be McCain." If we know anything about John McCain, it is that he is by instinct a reformer, sometimes to a fault. Yet when he acts like McCain and picks a maverick reformer in his own mold, his former media cheering squad turns on him for not conforming to Beltway mores and picking someone they've all met 10 times in the CNN green room....
What's really going on here is that the Beltway class can see how popular the Palin pick is with Republicans outside Washington, and especially with middle-class conservatives. As Richard Land, a leader with the Southern Baptist Convention, said Monday, John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin closed the "enthusiasm gap" between the two parties.

There is nothing more dangerous to entrenched Washington power than a populist conservative who looks unlikely to buy into Washington's creature comforts. Take a close look at Governor Palin's record on ethics and energy in Alaska, and it becomes clear what this Beltway outburst is actually about. The irony is that while Senator Obama is running on change, his acceptance speech made explicit that he's promising only more power and money for Washington. Sarah Palin's history of taking on the career politicians of a corrupt Alaskan GOP machine - her own party - shows that she's the more authentic change agent.

Meanwhile, a former Democrat explains why she's voting McCain-Palin in November (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin).

Everyday Americans know change-we-can-believe in when they see it!

Photo Credit: Jules Crittenden

Sarah Palin, America's Sweetheart, Readies for Prime-Time

Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is scheduled to give her prime-time acceptance speech tonight to the Republican National Convention at St. Paul, Minnesota.

The stakes are sky high for America's Sweetheart!

Unlike any previous vice-presidential nominee, Palin faces an all-out assault from every corner of the political universe. The nihilist leftosphere led the way with sleazy allegations of a teen-pregnancy cover-up. The feminist left has attacked Palin with a zeal unmatched since the Clarence Thomas nomination in 1991, with the latest smears alleging she's a bad mother. Breathless stories of Alaskan political scandals have splashed the front pages of newspapers nationwide, and this morning we're greeted with the tabloidization of Sarah Palin, at the National Enquirer and US Magazine.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton remains on the sidelines, refusing to speak out in praise of Palin's historic achievement.

Kathleen Parker puts the Palin phenonemon in perspective:

Did someone switch the Kool-Aid?

Palin is everything liberals have always purported to want for women—freedom to choose, opportunities for both career and family, a shot at the top ranks of American political life. With five children and an impressive résumé, Palin should be Miss July in the go-girl calendar.

But note Victor Davis Hanson, who argues that Palin will be vindicated in the court of all-American public opinion:

Palin's symbolism is the antithesis of the metrosexual wind- or body- surfing politican, and hair-plugged, neurotic TV pundit So at this time, right now, millions apparently like Palin's atypical 19th-century profile. Again, it's a pleasant change of pace from Harvard Law School, DC politics, "community organizing" and the can't-do, 'they raised the bar on me' collective complaint.

If she can beat off the frothing Newsweek/MSNBC/New York Times inbred rabid wolves, and do it with the grace she has shown so far, she will fill a deep yearning among Americans for someone like her. A lot of Americans, if they watch reality shows, prefer truckers on ice or Bering Sea crab fishing to endless psychodramas of thirty-something suburban whiners.

So apparently they are eager to see a rare politican who is unapologetic about America's past achievements (cf. Obama's "tragic history" and need for more "oppression studies"), and who reminds us with pride that a muscular world of action, not community organizing, creates the bounty that others use and take for granted but so often sneer at the methods of its acquisition.

Right now, there are millions rooting for her in a way not true of Biden—and many who are criticizing her don't have a clue why that it is so.

No, those in the anti-Palin attackocracy have no clue.

Tonight the nation will tune-in to the real Sarah Palin, America's Sweetheart.

Republicans Tighten Image on Eve of Palin Speech

The Wall Street Journal reports that the John McCain campaign is working to get ahead of the media cycle on the eve of Sarah Palin's address to the Republican National Convention Wednesday night:

The McCain campaign scrambled to take control of the public debate over vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin, canceling her public appearances and teaming her with high-powered Republican operatives as she prepared for a speech Wednesday night that will be her first, and perhaps most important, chance to define herself to the American public.

Campaign officials were heartened by the strong support the Alaska governor continued to receive in the halls of their nominating convention here, a day after the revelation that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was pregnant.

Gov. Palin and her husband "have embraced the grandchild about to be born," Gary Bauer, a social conservative activist and onetime presidential candidate, told the Texas delegation. "They already are teaching America a lesson about the sanctity of life," he added, as the delegates jumped to their feet in applause.

But Republican officials remained nervous about how the choice was playing in the country as a whole. Some new polls showed Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama gaining a big lead in recent days following his party's convention last week....

Although there has been extensive coverage of Gov. Palin in the four days since she was named, the campaign sees her speech as an opportunity for her to describe herself in her own terms. The adviser said he would be shocked if she spoke about her daughter's pregnancy, noting that the campaign considers that issue off-limits. Her whole family is expected to attend, including Bristol and her boyfriend, Levi Johnston.

The speech is "a chance for her to actually get out and tell her story and for people to see beyond some of the media fog that's existed in the last 48 hours," said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis.

I doubt Barack Obama will retain his lead in public opinion beyond the end of the week. Rasmussen reports that following a weekend of revelations, Governor Palin finds a clear majority with a favorable opinion:

After a long weekend of Democratic criticism of John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, over half of voters (52%) still have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of the Alaska governor. Thirty-one percent (31%) view her very favorably.

If Palin's speech is anything like her debut on the campaign trail in Dayton, Ohio, last Friday, opinion trends should stabilize amid a significant McCain-Palin polling bounce.

See also, "McCain’s Mrs. Right."