There is no end to the talk about what the Palin effect will be, in the end, when it comes down to election day.
She has energized the Republican base, assuredly. But similarly she has poured new energy into the Democratic Party, which has a clear aim : defeat her, not let Sarah Palin get her feet into the Oval Office, if, GOd forbids, something happens to John McCain.
1. step one : Sarah Palin paints herself (no pun intended) as a tough politician and a fighter by asking her audience :"what is the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom? Lipstick!".
2. step two : Barack Obama then wittingly or not picked up on the lipstick theme when he declared "You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig". The quotation should not be seen as a direct attack against Sarah Palin herself, the Sentator from Illinois was referring to the Republican Party in general and its attempt to take on the mantel and the mantra of change, although its been in power for the best part of a decade.
How much is gender being injected in the campaign by the choice of a female VP?
I was very interested in last week's Lexington column which offered a new perspective in which we could apprehend Sarah Palin's selection as a victory for feminism. Indeed this interpretation seemed to be rejected by the old core of traditional liberal feminists who certainly don't see the Republican VP nominee as a feminist, nor her selection as a victory that they could claim. This read was a much welcome shift in paradigm, I'm curious to hear about your reaction to the article.
In terms of polling what I've been hearing is that the two campaigns are basically back to the pre-convention figures and in most of the battle states the two candidates are in a dead heat.
The defining events now will be the debates, the first of which will be held on Friday.
More later, I'm being kicked out of the coffee shop.
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