Palin buzz boosts GOP
Polls, turnouts, enthusiasm on rise
If Senator John McCain threw a political Hail Mary pass by picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, this much is clear: She caught it and ran.
Ten days after McCain upended the presidential race by tapping the little-known governor of Alaska, the buzz generated by the GOP ticket shows no sign of abating, even as Palin has yet to answer questions from the press or the public.
New national polls show McCain leading or even with Democrat Barack Obama, who had been the front-runner for weeks. A USA Today/Gallup survey taken over the weekend indicates Palin has helped McCain close a longstanding "enthusiasm gap" with Obama, part of why it now has McCain leading Obama 50 percent to 46 percent among registered voters.
The poll shifts are just one measure of the Palin effect. With her by his side, Mc Cain is drawing the biggest crowds of his campaign. Many conservative Republicans are fired up for the general election for the first time, forcing Obama's campaign to search for an effective response.
"Your enthusiasm and your turnout today - I'm so encouraged by it!" McCain told jubilant supporters yesterday in Lee's Summit, Mo., where voters lined up to get in. "Now we have a team of mavericks, and we understand who we work for. We don't work for a party. We don't work for a special interest. We don't work for ourselves. We work for you and we're going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C."
McCain's campaign is eager to harness the energy Palin has injected. After joint rallies today in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, Palin will head home tomorrow to Alaska - a competitive state in November - for a "welcome home" rally, aides said. It will be her first major solo appearance since she introduced herself to the world with her speech to the Republican National Convention. Aides say she will also host fund-raisers and campaign events in the weeks ahead, and appear in more TV ads.
But while the rewards of Palin's newfound rock-star status are evident, so are the risks, particularly once she actually faces the press and voters. McCain's campaign has so far kept Palin cloistered; her first TV news interview, with Charles Gibson of ABC News, isn't scheduled until the end of the week. Virtually every appearance has been heavily scripted, while Palin, who has been governor less than two years, gets a crash course on issues and talking points from McCain advisers.
Democrats yesterday circulated an account of what they said was a misstep she made over the weekend, when she said that mortgage giants
McCain and Palin also face the ongoing task of trying to distance themselves from an unpopular incumbent Republican president. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday offered ringing endorsements of Palin. "I find her to be a very dynamic, capable, smart women who, you know, it really says that John McCain made an inspired pick, to me," Bush said in an interview to air this morning on Fox News Channel. But their words are more likely to show up in an ad for Obama than one for McCain and Palin.
Even with these challenges, though, it is evident that the dynamics of the race have been altered, at least temporarily, by the presence of Palin, a charismatic 44-year-old self-described "hockey mom." Obama's campaign now faces its most serious strategic challenge of the general election.
From the moment McCain announced Palin as his vice presidential nominee, on Aug. 29, Obama's campaign has seemed unsure of exactly how to go after her. At first Obama aides attacked her inexperience harshly, until Obama himself acknowledged they had gone too far and offered his congratulations.
But the Democrats' strategy for slowing Palin's ascent is coming into view. Obama's running mate, Senator Joe Biden, campaigning in Green Bay, Wis., yesterday, sought to portray Palin - who opposes abortions even in cases of incest or rape, and has called the Iraq war "a task that is from God" - as having "some fairly extreme views."
Obama's campaign has also begun aggressively criticizing Palin for rewriting aspects of her record as governor and mayor of Wasilla, a small town north of Anchorage.
The McCain campaign released a new TV ad yesterday touting Palin's opposition to the proposed $400 million "Bridge to Nowhere" to a lightly populated Alaskan island, even though she expressed support for the project while running for governor and turned against it after criticism and after federal money had been withdrawn. In Missouri yesterday, Palin decried the "corrupt practices" of congressional earmarks, despite seeking them out while she was mayor of Wasilla, and despite the fact that Alaska this year has requested nearly $200 million in earmark spending, according to the Associated Press.
"I mean, you can't just make stuff up. You can't just re-create yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself," Obama said in Michigan yesterday. "The American people aren't stupid."
The Obama campaign hammered the same point in a new TV ad released late yesterday. "Politicians lying about their record? You don't call that 'maverick,' " the narrator says. "You call it more of the same."
Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said in an e-mail statement that Palin's "record of reform and reputation as a maverick willing to buck the status quo in order to get things done is clearly resonating with voters."
With the polls showing McCain gaining ground by trying to also claim the mantle of change, Obama yesterday sought to protect his turf. "It was just like a month ago - it was 'experience, experience, experience,' " he said in Farmington Hills, Mich. "And they chose Palin and they start talking about 'change, change, change.' What happened?"
Kathy Sullivan, former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said she isn't worried, because she believes voters will realize that Palin only reaffirms McCain's similarities to Bush.
"Once both Democratic and independent voters find out what her true positions are on issues, then things will be fine," Sullivan said. "People tend to overreact to the short-term" phenomena.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 