Poll today is tied, Obama lost 8 points over night

[Ma'ake]

The "red meat" strategy last night paid off. Obama's positive / negative ratings are +4. McCain's split is +3

Fasten your seatbelts. The McCain / Palin strategy of hard punches worked. Look for the same from the Dems soon. If both sides pound hard, the negatives of both candidates will approach the 20s. Wow, what a bloodbath.

If McCain's character is a campaign issue, look for the "whole story" to come out, the philandering, the betrayals, the conquests of beauty queens. If McCain's prime character event was in the late 60s, surely people will accept contrasting examples from later than that.

Palin's comeuppance comes in October when the TrooperGate investigation is released.

Obama's campaign raised $10M today, just since Palin's speech.

God, I love this drama! Thunderdome! I've read of Alaskans that are fed up with Palin's shallow opportunism. We'll likely hear opinions from them.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by Ma'ake

The "red meat" strategy last night paid off. ...

God, I love this drama!

It's almost as good as the last three weeks of the BCS.

Hey, don't get too worked up about the polls. Palin's expected to provide a little bounce, you know? That was the whole point of putting her on the ticket.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Ma'ake

If McCain's character is a campaign issue, look for the "whole story" to come out, the philandering, the betrayals, the conquests of beauty queens. If McCain's prime character event was in the late 60s, surely people will accept contrasting examples from later than that.

Better a philanderer than an infanticidal megalomaniac.

[Ma'ake]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

Better a philanderer than an infanticidal megalomaniac.

That sounds a lot like "when Clinton lied, no one died"

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Ma'ake

That sounds a lot like "when Clinton lied, no one died"

Perhaps so, bit it's accurate.

[Ma'ake]

A tough strategy the Dems might employ is to attack McCain's personal integrity relentlessly right before the debates, see if he'll blow his stack. He looks frail, they'll definitely pound on him, try to get him off his game in the debates, for sure.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Ma'ake

A tough strategy the Dems might employ is to attack McCain's personal integrity relentlessly right before the debates, see if he'll blow his stack. He looks frail, they'll definitely pound on him, try to get him off his game in the debates, for sure.

That would definitely be good strategy on the Dems part, but that would open the door to return to Obama's association with the likes of William Ayers, Reverend Wright, etc. Would it be worth the risk?

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Ma'ake

The "red meat" strategy last night paid off. Obama's positive / negative ratings are +4. McCain's split is +3

Fasten your seatbelts. The McCain / Palin strategy of hard punches worked.

Fasten them a little tighter. The CBS poll was taken before Palin's speech.

[BarbaraGordon]

If I may, Ma-ake, the change in numbers was not overnight. The first was conducted the 29-20-31st of Aug. The second was the 1-2-3rd of September. McCain gained two points, from 40 to 42 percent. Obama lost six, from 48 to 42.

As Tex pointed out, the second poll followed the announcement of Ms. Palin as VP, but not her speech last night.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/...n4416798.shtml

[Ma'ake]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

That would definitely be good strategy on the Dems part, but that would open the door to return to Obama's association with the likes of William Ayers, Reverend Wright, etc. Would it be worth the risk?

It might be worth the risk, maybe not. The numbers I saw showed the negatives on Obama & McCain each being in the mid 30s. If the punching gets vigorous, those numbers could rise into the 40s for each. This election could very well end up being a matter of voting against candidates rather than voting *for* anyone.

In this context, for those who "lose" the election, their followers will really be angry that the person they voted against actually won. Rather than being disappointed that their candidate won, they'll be more intent on finding fault with anything & everything the new president does, which I guess is really not so different than the last 8 years, but we've seen where that put Bush in terms of public standing and where he'll end up in history's judgment.

If nothing else, the theatre is interesting and entertaining, and future political strategists are taking notes, learning from Rove's protegy and the Democratic counterpart.