Whether Palin is lifting McCain up or dragging him down depends on who you are. If you're a Republican, then it is energizing you. If you're a Dem, then it's dragging McCain down. I think many independents like Palin now, but once they examine Palin's issues and see how far right-wing they are then they will go towards the Dems….

Given that Palin has received a lot of attention (and IS energizing a certain group of people), when I first saw the cartoon the first thing I thought was, “SHouldn't Palin be the boat and McCain be the anchor weighing her down?”

Whether Palin is lifting McCain up or dragging him down depends on who you are. If you're a Republican, then it is energizing you. If you're a Dem, then it's dragging McCain down. I think many independents like Palin now, but once they examine Palin's issues and see how far right-wing they are then they will go towards the Dems….

Given that Palin has received a lot of attention (and IS energizing a certain group of people), when I first saw the cartoon the first thing I thought was, “SHouldn't Palin be the boat and McCain be the anchor weighing her down?”

It has reenergized the campaign and put missing life into the convention. The TV viewership numbers for Palin's speech are almost as high as Obama's speech numbers. This was before ever having Palin make a speech before a nation-wide audience. Do you really believe that the numbers would have been there had McCain chosen Lieberman, a conservative such as Thompson, or Pawlenty, say?

Prior to choosing Palin, McCain's campaign was going nowhere — other than for one or two recent clever ads, and at least one of these, too late to have greatest effect, so that was one of his numerous mistakes — and nobody expected any substantial level of interest in “the other” party's convention after Obama, the favored candidate this year for the Presidency, and the Dem convention was so good. (The normal question on people's minds was how far into and through the GOP convention that Obama and the Dems would still be on people's minds instead.)

Palin has changed all that (and put life back into interest among so much of the public in an alternative, in McCain-Palin's case, a reform-minded alternative, to an Obama-Biden reverse course to the 1960s-1970s). The TV numbers show this.

* * *

“Is that an anchor or a submarine firing torpedoes?”

It's an anchor. No torpedoes being fired at the ship by subs in sewage far beneath the surface — the media and other lefties were left out of this misleading cartoon.

* * *

“it does remind me of a New Yorker cover that you conservatories were slapping knees over “

I range from moderate to conservative on various issues, and I was slapping my knees over the idiotic overreaction to the cover by the Left — while spending most of my time with the New Yorker reading the article on Obama that was in it (”Making it”). The cover I left to the lefties; it's their level of play, I reckon, while I prefer the more serious play: I read the stuff with mainly text rather than pictures.

It has reenergized the campaign and put missing life into the convention. The TV viewership numbers for Palin's speech are almost as high as Obama's speech numbers. This was before ever having Palin make a speech before a nation-wide audience. Do you really believe that the numbers would have been there had McCain chosen Lieberman, a conservative such as Thompson, or Pawlenty, say?

Prior to choosing Palin, McCain's campaign was going nowhere — other than for one or two recent clever ads, and at least one of these, too late to have greatest effect, so that was one of his numerous mistakes — and nobody expected any substantial level of interest in “the other” party's convention after Obama, the favored candidate this year for the Presidency, and the Dem convention was so good. (The normal question on people's minds was how far into and through the GOP convention that Obama and the Dems would still be on people's minds instead.)

Palin has changed all that (and put life back into interest among so much of the public in an alternative, in McCain-Palin's case, a reform-minded alternative, to an Obama-Biden reverse course to the 1960s-1970s). The TV numbers show this.

* * *

“Is that an anchor or a submarine firing torpedoes?”

It's an anchor. No torpedoes being fired at the ship by subs in sewage far beneath the surface — the media and other lefties were left out of this misleading cartoon.

* * *

“it does remind me of a New Yorker cover that you conservatories were slapping knees over “

I range from moderate to conservative on various issues, and I was slapping my knees over the idiotic overreaction to the cover by the Left — while spending most of my time with the New Yorker reading the article on Obama that was in it (”Making it”). The cover I left to the lefties; it's their level of play, I reckon, while I prefer the more serious play: I read the stuff with mainly text rather than pictures.

How do you leap to such huge assumptions without spraining something?

I agree that it's too early to tell, and we'll need a good five day polling cycle following both Palin's speech and McCain's tonight, but we've had six days since the announcement of her as the running mate, and as of this morning, Gallup shows Obama extending his new lead since the convention, not losing any of it. But the speeches might turn some of that around. Time will tell.

How do you leap to such huge assumptions without spraining something?

I agree that it's too early to tell, and we'll need a good five day polling cycle following both Palin's speech and McCain's tonight, but we've had six days since the announcement of her as the running mate, and as of this morning, Gallup shows Obama extending his new lead since the convention, not losing any of it. But the speeches might turn some of that around. Time will tell.

It may be to early to tell, but I don't think Palin is pulling McCain down. She's energized the GOP Base that never really trusted McCain anyway. Will her appeal expand past the base? Also, too early to tell.

I was intrigued by her pick for VP, but the more she talks the more I see she's nothing but your typical modern-day divisive Republican politician.

DLS, this is a more primitive piece of art, but it does remind me of a New Yorker cover that you conservatories were slapping knees over a few months back.

It may be to early to tell, but I don't think Palin is pulling McCain down. She's energized the GOP Base that never really trusted McCain anyway. Will her appeal expand past the base? Also, too early to tell.

I was intrigued by her pick for VP, but the more she talks the more I see she's nothing but your typical modern-day divisive Republican politician.

DLS, this is a more primitive piece of art, but it does remind me of a New Yorker cover that you conservatories were slapping knees over a few months back.

dr.e

Palin has _lifted_ the McCain ship back to normal attitude and steaming _hard_.