With Sarah Palin's nomination, Barack Obama and John McCain's meeting at Saddleback, Mitt Romney's speech, Mike Huckabee's rise and fall, religion has played a big part in this year's presidential election. And that leads us to the question of the day:

There's really no kind way for Barack Obama's supporters to spin the host of recent polling numbers. John McCain's convention bounce was bigger than Obama's. As was his television viewing audience. Now that the confetti has begun to settle, we're looking at a changed race. Obama is now the underdog.

A combination of factors is at work here, but no one doubts that the choice of Sarah Palin is foremost among the reasons for McCain's resurgence. The Pit Bull with Lipstick--whose record as mayor of Wasilla should have many conservatives wondering, and whose mingling of religion and politics should raise red flags for all but the most ardent believers--has ignited McCain's sometimes sleepy campaign.

Suddenly, the 72-year-old senator is turning out the big crowds. Though his running mate has scorned a meeting with the press -- nay, because she has scorned it -- her popularity is sky-high. It's as if Americans are saying: We like what we don't know about her! In fact, her appeal is so great that we might as well admit that it's time to switch the billing on this ticket from McCain/Palin to Palin/McCain. I'll say this, McCain figured out that this year change beats experience just in the nick of time.

The Associated Press reports that former President Bill Clinton invited Barack Obama to lunch in New York on Thursday. The lunch will take place at the New York headquarters of Clinton's charitable foundation.

Earlier that day, Obama and John McCain will attend a ceremony at the site of the World Trade Center to commemorate the terrorist attacks of 9/11, seven years ago.

After the rousing speeches that Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, gave at the Democratic National Convention, how much the Clintons--especially the former President--would be involved in the remainder of the Obama campaign remained an open question.

During a day full of appearances in New York on Saturday, Senator Clinton answered questions about Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin by saying, "This election is about issues, and that's what's going to matter to people at the end of the day."

An internet uprising is now being staged by women upset at John McCain's nomination of Sarah Palin for vice president.

Among the sites arguing that McCain's choice represents a cynical move to try woo both conservative Christians and former-Hillary Clinton supporters at the same time are:

womenagainstpalin.com

womenagainstpalin.org

and

womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com

Gloria Steinem, the former publisher of Ms. Magazine, and a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton's in the primary, spelled out her concerns about Palin in an Op-Ed for the LA Times:

She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

The question remains whether left-leaning women put off by the selection of Palin will offset the numbers of those on the right who are energized by the pick. That's the conclusion some papers are making. I think it's too early to tell. She gives a good stump speech, but how will she fare in interviews and debates? Time will tell. Only 2 more months to go.

Talking Points Memo

There's a lot of complaining that the McCain campaign won't allow anyone to interview Sarah Palin. And for the major news outlets that would be in line for such an interview there's a logic to keeping up the drumbeat. But McCain campaign manager Rick Davis is right: It's their campaign to run. They can do it how they want. Everyone else should just shut up, stop complaining and call the reality for what it is.

Davis says Palin won't give any interviews until she feels "comfortable" giving one. And this morning he added that she wouldn't give any "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

Sarah Palin could be the President of the United States in four and a half months. We tend to think of this as an abstraction; but it's true. And yet today she's so unprepared and knows so little about the challenges and tasks facing the country that she can't even give a softball interview.

That's a little off as I think Davis makes clear that "softball" interviews are perfectly fine, if he can be guaranteed that will be the case. What the media wants is Sarah Palin vs. Sam Donaldson chock full of questions like this (via Biblical Christianity):

• "Do you think women should be pastors?"
• "Why can a woman be a president, but not a pastor?"
  
• "Do you think wives should submit to their husbands?"
• "Do you obey your husband in all things as to the Lord?"
• "Do you hit your children?"
• "Do you believe in evolution?"
• "Do you believe the world was created in six days, 6000 years ago?"
• "Will everyone who doesn't believe in Jesus go to Hell?"
• "Do you think the Bible is the literal Word of God?"

Questions like these are gotcha questions, because they are almost certainly designed not to satisfy curiosity, but to box the candidate out of the mainstream of American thought And this is what the McCain campaign is probably concerned about.

How to handle that? First she needs to get prepped on the issues of the day. This is a fair observation, up until about a week and a half ago she was mainly concerned with running Alaska. Her circle of concern has widened a bit lately and there are a lot of facts to get up to speed on. She could also stand some coaching on how to handle gotcha questions.

Second is to let the media focus, which is running white-hot right now, to cool down a bit. Obama, Biden, and McCain, and the rest of the politicians in Washington will inevitably do something to take Palin out of the headlines, if not the front page. Let's hope anyway. Then the interviews can proceed as normal. Again I can't see that the McCain campaign has any concerns about Palin's poise or ability to think on her feet, but time cannot hurt her here.

In fact, just as in the speculation over the RNC speech, expectations over the first interview may also serve to blow back in Palin's favor once she shows she can handle the press as well as anyone. I've reviewed the debates and press conferences from her governor days. She does fine.

The press can howl as much as it wants to, but there is every reason to believe that the McCain campaign knows exactly what it is doing. Also we'll know soon, as the first interview is sometime later this week with Charlie Gibson at ABC, an excellent choice.

With the results I've seen so far I'm confidently declaring McCain the winner of the VP and convention bounce events. On August 24th, on the eve of the Lieberman selection, Obama was holding a narrow but steady 2 point lead in the race according to RealClearPolitics. First came Obama's underwhelming choice of Joe Biden as his VP, and then we had the DNC convention which was clearly a success and resulted in a 5 point bounce for Obama by late last week.

Obama's time in the news was extremely short lived as on Friday morning John McCain upended the contest as we thought we knew it and it hasn't been the same since. The polls tell the story that although Republicans immediately moved to support McCain and Palin, the general public was much slower and in fact no bounce started showing until Friday morning which would be the first polls to show since the Palin speech. But since then, it's been nothing but positive movement for McCain. It's likely that we aren't done yet moving in the McCain direction.

Currently Gallup has McCain at +3 and Rasmussen at even. (Zogby interactive also has McCain up by 4, but I don't trust that poll farther than I can throw it). Here's Gallup.



The very least we can say is that Obama's momentum coming out of his convention has been completely erased. Worse than that, no one is talking about him. He may take scant comfort in the fact that no one is really talking about McCain either. It's Sarah Palin's world and we are all just living in it.

Also my initial feeling that Biden was a horrible pick is confirmed. Biden is arguably a drain on the ticket, and is not a useful proxy for Obama in making his case to the target demographics that he needs (i.e. Women).

Republican supporters shouldn't get too comfortable as convention bounces fade as they inevitably do and this one will be no different. But the fact remains that we moved into these two weeks with an Obama clear advantage in enthusiasm, in a gender gap, and on the issues. We come out of this week with both essentially tied and the enthusiasm and gender gaps narrowed severely.

On to the debates!

Update: Reuters is reporting mixed messages from the McCain campaign on when Palin will face the newsmedia for the first time.

"Within the next few days and I'm strongly recommending that she come on 'Face the Nation' with Bob Schieffer," McCain said in an interview that was taped on Saturday. But McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, would not go that far. "She'll agree to an interview when we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it," David said on "Fox News Sunday."

Glad we got that cleared up?

In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senator and Obama running mate Joe Biden threw down the gauntlet for GOP veep nominee Sarah Palin to come out and, um, meet the press: (from Politico)

"She's a smart, tough politician," Biden told Tom Brokaw in a "Meet the Press" interview live from Wilmington, Del. "So I think she's going to be formidable. Eventually, she's going to have to sit in front of you like I'm doing and have done. Eventually, she's going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually, she's going to have to answer on the record."

The McCain campaign says Palin will eventually do interviews, but none are scheduled.

Biden, too, took a weekend off from the Sunday shows after he was named as running mate for Barack Obama, although Biden appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes."

It was a strong appearance by Biden, as he also tagged as "demeaning" the assumption that Hillary Clinton supporters would vote for her polar opposite simply because she's a woman.

This follows closely on the heels of Barack Obama's first direct swipe at Palin yesterday, on the subject of Palin's rhetoric on pork and pockets full of bacon.

The McCain campaign's response to these challenges will be a real test of their ability to eschew the cheese with their whine, and tackle the substance of the contrasts the Democrats are drawing.

Tommy Christopher co-hosts "Unusable Signal" on BlogTalkRadio, every Tues and Thurs at 9pm, Wed, Fri, and Sat at 11pm. (Eastern) Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.

UPDATE: Palin agrees to ABC interview later this week - maybe.

I always like it when Fox News' Chris Wallace remembers that he's a journalist (h/t Paddy).

Interviewing McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, Wallace asks why VP pick Sarah Palin will not sit for interviews. Well, since last Thursday it appears the media has not been respectful or deferential enough.

It looks as though she won't appear for questioning until the media are properly respectful and fawning like Fox News' own Greta Van Susteren was in her puff piece that aired yesterday - Gov. Sarah Palin: An American Woman.

Here's Davis on Fox News Sunday today:

Major hat tip to Jenny over at YestoDemocracy.com for hipping me to the subject of my next 16-part series, and to Sarah Haskins, my new favorite person. She does a segment called "Target: Women" ( I guess "Kmart: Ladies" was taken ) on Current TV's Infomania.

P.U.M.A.s are for Hillary, Cougars bang young dudes but a P.A.N.T.H.E.R is for Palin. Get your P.A.N.T.H.E.R. pride right here.

Target Women is a recurring segment on Current TV's weekly television show, infoMania. In each episode of Target Women, Sarah Haskins takes a look at the often-ridiculous way the media reaches out to women.

You can even get cool PANTHER swag here. Enjoy, while I go and watch the rest of Sarah's videos.

Tommy Christopher co-hosts "Unusable Signal" on BlogTalkRadio, every Tues and Thurs at 9pm, Wed, Fri, and Sat at 11pm. (Eastern) Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.

On the campaign trail in Indiana today, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama took aim at John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, on the subject of earmarks. From AOL:

"I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she's change, and that's great," Obama said. "She's a skillful politician. But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up."

Palin, the article continues, has set a record pace for per capita earmark dollars, exceeding some states by a factor of 10.

It will be interesting to see how Palin and McCain react to Obama's first direct salvo at the GOP's newly minted Veep candidate. Actually, it will be interesting to see Palin react to anything with the press, as she has yet to field questions from reporters.

My guess is that Brian Rogers will issue a statement condemning Obama's highly personal attack on tax dollars that benefitted Alaskans that included Palin's family.