Sarah Palin in Kuwait, August 2008. photo unknown.
Palin Palin Palin.
The real question, as Andrew Sullivan points out, is not Palin's impact on us. It's her impact on the undecideds.
There, Palin bombs.
The AtlanticPalin is getting a lot of heat right now, and perhaps rightly so.
But among the critical undecideds, the Palin pick made only 6 percent more likely to vote for McCain; and it made 31 percent less likely to vote for him. 49 percent said it would have no impact, and 15 percent remained unsure. More to the point: among undecideds, 59 percent said Palin was unready to be president. Only 6 percent said she was. If the first criterion for any job is whether you're ready for it, this is a pretty major indictment of the first act of McCain's presidential leadership.
One other striking finding. If McCain thought he could present Palin as a moderate, he was wrong. A whopping 69 percent view her as conservative (37 percent as very conservative), and only 13 percent see her as moderate.
From this first snap-shot (and unsettled) impression, Palin has helped McCain among Republicans, left Democrats unfazed, but moved the undecideds against him quite sharply. I totally understand why.
It's important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees.
This is not a race for the Vice Presidency. It is a race for President, and on the important numbers which matter in electing a President, John McCain has -- yet again -- shown impulsiveness and poor judgement.
Update:
Palin's 17 year old daughter Bristol IS pregnant.
Bristol is obviously showing. The Palin camp just put out an announcement through the McCain campaign organization.
MSNBCHow about those family values?
We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,' the Palins' statement said. 'Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support
My problem here is not that a child is pregnant. It is that Sarah Palin wants to pass laws making abortion illegal EVEN IN THE EVENT OF THE RAPE OF HER OWN DAUGHTER. Yet the words "birth control" clearly have failed to make it into her own child's education. As someone with three daughters and a son, I find the hypocrisy breathtaking.
Republicans claim they are for small government yet they always want to be in our bedrooms. Is it because they can't control their own?
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