By Max Godnick

I don’t really think Mccain’s boost is such a surprise. Other than the ten point lead in the Gallup tracking poll, Mccain only has a one to three point lead in most polls, and one week ago, he was virtually tied with Obama. I don’t think a presidential candidate has ever not received a boost after the convention and considering how Obama really only had one day to let his boost be seen (because Palin frenzy began a mere twelve hours after Obama’s acceptance speech, and the GOP convention began three days afterwards), Mccain’s sudden lead seems less than shocking. 

Everyone knows the race is close. Everyone knows Sarah Palin changed everything up. Everyone knows Obama is no longer the guaranteed forty fourth president of the United States, these are all headline stories of two weeks ago. The new themes and headlines will begin to trickle in as the Fall campaign commences. Sixty days is a short time, and the election will come about very soon. The numbers from the past two days do show us now how close the race is, but this isn’t news. It merely prolongs a narrative into the next and final stretch of what has been a benchmark in American history. When the boosts and conventions are taken into effect, nothing has really changed. Mccain’s trajectory was nothing but upward a week ago, and has not jumped or declined significantly. So we are still tied, well, Mccain might be winning, but not by much. Nothing is set in stone, and all the drama over the numbers has just been fueled by news cycles. The next sixty days will be dictated by stories of greater surprise and value. 

The real decider will be in the coming weeks. As in recent presidential elections, debates are probably the largest factor of the late season campaign. With two candidates as eloquent and intelligent as Obama and Biden, I can’t help but feel optimistic.

By Max Godnick 

Sarah Palin…Yes Really

Gabriel Rom

The lady hasn’t been out in the political landscape for more than 24 hours and already, she’s being attacked from all sides, this site included. That of course is expected, she’s a 44 year gun-toting, anti abortion hockey mom from Alaska, but even so, the women is more dimensional than many are giving her credit for

Sarah Palin has an 80% approval rating in her home state, but like many Alaskian republicans has not been able to escape some of the corruption investigations that plagues the state’s party. Ironically, this is in part due to Palin’s relentless anti corruption crusades, taking on bigwhigs in the democratic party as well as her own.

You’re absolutely right on the cleansing that’s needed in our party, in the Republican Party.
- Sarah Palin [1]

The woman isn’t all talk though, she cannot and should not be written off just get as an empty dress (see bimbo) that was chosen just to court the evangelical and woman votes. Sarah Palin has taken on one of the most corrupt state parties in the country, she has made bitter enemies, and had to deal with (as of now) unsubstantiated corruption allegations, primarily propagated by the very people she has been trying to convict and/or oust. [2] She had to beat the incumbent republican to achieve her position, running on a moderate ticket for govenor that alienated many republicans, and additionally convinced the Lt.Gov. of Alaska Sean Parnell to jump into the GOP party to beat the incumbent.

Palin has also threatened to support democrats if GOP members wouldn’t support her tax and spend policies. Shes a shrewd, political, no-nonsense type of woman, and not the “beauty queen airhead” many have quickly pigeonholed her as.

That all being said, McCain’s VP choice is a risk, and a huge one at that. Palin does have blaringly obvious political purposes – Women, evangelicals (social conservatives), and McCain needs these votes. Barack Obama is winning this election, in the poll sna din the media, and McCain had to take a risk with his VP. But possibly unforseen by the McCain camp Palin’s pro-life anti-abortion sentiments pose a pandora’s box with voters. She may be able to bring in some hardline conservatives who were having doubts about McCain, but in the meantime she’ll also be losing a swath of liberal Hillary supporters who would have an incredibly hard time voting for a candidate who has a pro-life vp on the ticket.

What all this means for McCain, we will see in the upcoming weeks. I look forward to a Biden-Palin debate. I, and I think a good many others, have a feeling she’ll hold her own much better than the naysayers on left would wish to admit.