Imo, voting for Palin just because she's a woman is the most sexist move you could make (and I am a woman who was a big HC supporter), and insults the woman that you initially supported.

It would be like blacks deciding to vote for the GOP (if Obama had lost the nomination) because they put Alan Keyes on the ticket. We'll never move beyond race and gender if that's the only reason for supporting a particular candidate.

If someone had asked me if I thought the Republicans would continue to fawn over Palin I would have said, “Yes.” But when you commented that you thought her GOP support would wan I actually took a look at it… and I think you might be right on this. But I think the ultimate reason would be ironic… I think they would support her because she is a religious right type but if the McCain campaign decides to downplay the importance of the VP (to try to counter the criticism that Palin is inexperienced McCain may say she won't actually set policy- he's the one with experience and will be running the country) then the religious right might not be as excited if they think McCain will support his own agenda (which the religious right is suspicious of) and that McCain will not take Palin's religious positions seriously.

I generally agree with your other observations on this, but I'm not sure I agree that many people might find the Palin/Biden debate entertaining. I think many people will view the debate as Palin's last chance and will take it seriously. I personally want to see how she performs and what the public thinks of her performance. I think there are a few people out there who do not like what they see of Palin right now but do want a reason to vote for her (and McCain). You are right that regardless of how she does the GOP will call it a success. But the people who are most important in this isn't going to listen to the GOP talking points. If someone actually watches the debate they generally want to form their own views (or already have unchangeable opinions).

Agreed, but I think the debates are important to other demographics too.

I think women initially liked Palin because she is fresh, spunky and quite frankly it IS exciting to see the first woman on the GOP ticket. But now independent women (not the religious right women) have had a chance to try on Palin and do not like what they see. Independent women tend to vote for issues and not a specific ideology. Palin is hard core religious right, so unless independent women happen to have the same values and positions on the issues of the religious right (it could happen, but it wouldn't be common) then these women will vote for the ticket with values and positions they identify with more.

I agree that chances of independent women returning to Palin is pretty low.

Given that I don't think that the sexual predator and economic issues had much of an impact for these results I think Obama will continue to increase his lead in the next few days. But I don't think it will match his previous highest lead.