The Tides Have Turned

Can you all believe the momentum that the Palin VP pick has generated for the VP? Following the Democratic National Convention Obama did get a bounch of several points, but did not widen the gap between himself and Senator McCain to double digits like many had expected him to do. After the conclusion of the Republican National Convention McCain has surged to the lead in most of the national polls. The Real Clear Politics poll tracker shows McCain with a 2.2 point lead over Obama after combining the results of the most recent polls conducted since September 7th.

I've mentioned this site on here before, but Intrade is a website that gives stock-like values and odds to the likelihood of certain events occurring. 50 days ago the odds they were giving McCain to win the Presidency was at about 32, while Obama was up around 67. As of today McCain is now up on Obama 50-48.

On Hugh's website they have posted this audio clip of a woman caller denouncing Oprah for not agreeing to interview Sarah Palin. I guess for the last 8 days the only first time callers they are taking on air have been women supporters of Governor Palin, and the response so far has been unending. Check out the clip as it is only a few minutes long and quite touching.

There is a whole kind of new supporter that is emerging since the announcement of Govenor Palin as the Vice President nominee, and it really has very little to do with the Hillary supporters, although I do imagine that many of those supporters would be coming over given Obama's week of gaffes since her nomination.

There are still reservations that I have about Senator McCain becoming President of the United States of America, but he is clearly a better option given the alternative of an Obama presidency. I download Hugh Hewitt's Letter To A Young Obama Supporter the other day and it's jaw-dropping how bad an Obama presidency would be for this country. I am not exaggerating. With the addition of Governor Palin to the ticket, McCain's has my unquestioned support.

Despite whatever you might think of him, he has run an incredible campaign. I know I'm young and have only really followed maybe 2 other elections, but the success of his campaigning for this election and for the GOP nomination has to be historic in its resiliency. In the summer of 2007 everyone counted him out for the Republican nomination, and just a few months ago everyone knew that him winning the presidency would be severe uphill battle, but here he is, out in front with less than two months to go. It really is amazing.

This is unrelated, but one last item from my favorite columnist, Jay Nordlinger:

I have lots of items for you, friends — on things other than politics — but maybe we should keep this Impromptus all-political. With a few exceptions. Let’s do a little language — in the form of a news item from Britain:

Next day, Hoy [an Olympic track cyclist] meets some Scottish journalists. One puts it to him that: ‘In the last 24 hours everyone has been offering an opinion on Chris Hoy. But what does Chris Hoy think of Chris Hoy?’

Hoy doesn’t miss a beat: ‘Chris Hoy thinks that the day Chris Hoy refers to Chris Hoy in the third person is the day that Chris Hoy disappears up his own arse.’

Adored it.

Guys. I love Jay. Love him and his writing to death. I hope you read his full Impromptu's column whenever I post it. If I could choose any three people in this whole world that I could sit down and chat with over lunch, he would be one of them. And I'll close this post with a typical sign-off that he uses in his own column - Thanks for joining me, dearhearts, and I’ll see you soon! (Go Sarah!)