While I believe this will be the excuse Dobson uses to finally endorse McCain (something he would have done anyway, as I long predicted) I am not sure it's as much of a slam dunk as Viguere believes.

She is so inexperienced that she may well give even fundamentalists pause for thought.  While they may be ecstatic over her anti-choice credentials, many will be sensible enough to have grave concerns over her ability to lead the country from day one.  Just ask them to think what would happen if McCain was incapacitated in his first month in office.

Second, if the Democrats play this right, they should be able to frame this as the Republican's stepping away from any possible compromise on reproductive rights (not that there was one anyway).  After the Dems have leaned over backwards to accommodate evangelicals, McCain has thumbed his nose at the moderates by picking Palin.  

Of course, such framing has been a big problem in the past, so it remains to be seen if the Obama campaign can be any different.

Palin probably turns this from a cake walk for Obama into a tighter race, but evangelicals still have to put a check mark against the name "McCain" and I'm betting the euphoria over Palin will be shortlived.


by tacitus on Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 12:39:14 PM EST