Come on, that's funny.

I think we'll know by Monday or Tuesday. The Republican convention will have settled into people's minds by then. The pollsters will have taken their samples entirely post-convention.

If Obama's up by 5 or more, he's going to win. If McCain is up by 7 or 8 coming off the RNC then he'll win. (McCain's bounce should be fresher hence the disparity.) Anything less definitive and we have a long hard fight ahead.

There is nothing that is so inherently moving that it can't be beaten to death by endless repetition.  

Democrats should not kid themselves:  she kicked ass.  She gave a great speech, full of killer lines.  She did McCain a lot of good, and she did Obama some serious damage.  She had just the right tone for attacking Obama:  bemused.  Feminine ridicule.  

Well, this whole Sarah Palin thing is going really well, eh?

Another week, another Frank Luntz/AARP focus group of undecided voters--this one in Minneapolis and with some bad news for John McCain: they don't like the choice of Sarah Palin for vice president. Only one person said Palin made him more likely to vote for McCain; about half the 25-member group raised their hands when asked if Palin made them less likely to vote for McCain.

They had a negative impression of Palin by a 2-1 margin...a fact that was reinforced when they were given hand-dials and asked to react to Palin's speech at her first appearance with McCain on Friday---the dials remained totally neutral as Palin went through her heart-warming(?) biography, and only blipped upwards when she said she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere--which wasn't quite the truth, as we now know . . .

Huge surprise. Gosh, who'd have guessed that women voters wouldn't just automatically flock to any candidate with a vagina? Who'd have guessed Hillary voters wouldn't leap to support a woman who thinks that if you're raped you should be forced by the state to have that rapist's baby?

This must be a terrible shock to McCain's people. Who knew women had, like, brains and all?

Turns out Palin did not oppose the "bridge to nowhere." She ran on support of it. Until the political winds changed. The bridge to flip flop.

Turns out rather than being a Simon-pure crusader for virtue she was on the board of a 527 that supported corrupt Alaska Senator Ted "Pimp My Vacation Home" Stevens. Until 2005. And then, in 2006, she made an ad supporting him. Did we know Stevens was an earmarking, bacon-bringing, patronage-machine and all-around slimeball in 2006? Even my dogs knew.

And then there's an issue I think will bubble beneath the surface: Palin has a 4 month old baby. And she has decided to take on one of the most grueling jobs in the world: national candidate. Four month old baby, 18 hour a day job that has mom and baby dragging through every Travelodge and Super 8 in the swing states and adhering to a schedule set not by the baby's needs but by the news cycle.

Not a job she has to take to make ends meet. That I would understand. This is just about ambition.

Now, if you follow the news you may be surprised at what I'm not writing about. It's a fine line, a fine distinction maybe, but putting a 4 month old second to your political ambitions is a problem for me. One I'll opine away on. That's about Palin's current choices. But, having done your best as a parent and then nevertheless having some family issues? That's on the other side of the line for me. I don't expect any parent to necessarily succeed. I do expect them to try.

Besides, Sarah's the only Palin running.

Between hurricane Gustav and this unprepared, unqualified Veep candidate I'd feel sorry for McCain. But he's the one who made this rash, silly, impetuous choice. He's the one who was so out of touch he actually believed this silly stunt would work.

Putting the country first? Not on this you didn't, Senator. On this you were just kind of a jerk.