On August 29, 2008, Republican Presidential nominee, John McCain, announced that Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, would be his VP running mate. That selection has trumped and checkmated the Obama-Biden ticket.
Coming the day after Obama's historic acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, which speech along with Obama's earlier pick of Joe Biden as his own VP running mate, were expected to be the top news item leading into the Republican convention the following week, McCain's pick of Sarah Palin completely eclipsed Obama's anticpated attention in the news cycles. Palin's introductory speech on that day in Ohio was extremely well received and made clear how poised and articulate she was on conservative principles and regarding her own history in Alaska.
In less than 24 hours, Obama's day in the sun was eclisped and relegated to history being completely upstaged by the Palin choice. The news cycles focused on nothing else afterwards in terms of the presidential politics right into the Republican convetnion.
The choice by McCain has stunningly energized the conservative base of the Republican party, an important segment McCain had his own problems with. In choosing Palin, a staunch conservative, McCain revitalized his commitment and perception in that area. Many conservatives who had relegated themselves to simply voting against Obama, are now more than willing to vote "for" Palin.
The choice also reached out directly to independents and dissaffected Democratic voters, particularly women, who were so sorely disappointed by Hillary Clinton's narrow loss and the way they had been treated since Obama sealed the nomination. Particularly in overlooking Hillary Clinton, who won 18 million votes in the primaries, and actually had more votes than Obama, those disaffected women have also been energized about the Palin pick. Many are indicatiung on blogs and disaffected Hillary voter sites on the web that they intend to cross over and vote for McCain and Palin now........