Palin Designation Nullifies Obama Bounce

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, who 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, the Attorney General, and the defeat, in a Republican primary, of the Governor (whose daughter is the 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 its 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 10-15 point Obama bounce. But that is gone with the wind!