PALIN: McCAIN'S GIFT TO OBAMA?

Undecided voters don't like her:

Another week, another Frank Luntz/AARP focus group of undecided voters--this one in Minneapolis and with some bad news for John McCain: they don't like the choice of Sarah Palin for vice president. Only one person said Palin made him more likely to vote for McCain; about half the 25-member group raised their hands when asked if Palin made them less likely to vote for McCain. They had a negative impression of Palin by a 2-1 margin...a fact that was reinforced when they were given hand-dials and asked to react to Palin's speech at her first appearance with McCain on Friday---the dials remained totally neutral as Palin went through her heart-warming(?) biography, and only blipped upwards when she said she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere--which wasn't quite the truth, as we now know.

... They really saw this pick as a gimmick--and one that reflected badly on John McCain's judgment.

And I agree with Atrios: this is why Obama's getting a second bounce -- to his best numbers ever.

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Obama Hits 50% for First Time
Leads McCain by eight percentage points, 50% to 42%

Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 30 through Sept. 1, finds Barack Obama leading the race for president with his highest share of support to date. Fully half of national registered voters now favor Obama for president, while 42% back John McCain....

Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Barack Obama attracting 48% of the vote while John McCain earns 43%. When "leaners" are included, it’s Obama 51%, McCain 45%. This is the highest level of support enjoyed by Obama at any point in Election 2008....

Oh, and the surest sign ever that the Palin selection is an unqualified disaster: Dick "Wrong 100% of the Time" Morris says Palin "is a godsend to McCain."

****

Maybe Joe and Jane Average don't consider it a big plus that a presidential or vice presidential candidate seems about as qualified as they themselves are to govern. Maybe Joe and Jane Average actually prefer someone who seems capable of doing the job.

And maybe the people who really are attracted to the Sarah Cinderella myth, besides the GOP base, are people like Dick Morris, Maureen Dowd, and this guy from Politico -- urbane political professionals who are having Sullivan's Travels fantasies about the plainspokenness and nobility and wisdom and moral superiority of people like Palin ... or, more precisely, their idealized image of Palin.

****

UPDATE: Obama's up in the Hotline poll, too -- 48%-39% (versus 44%-40%).