Allow me to defend John McCain. His comments that the fundamentals of the economy are strong were misconstrued. He bracketed his Hoover-like assertion with acknowledgement of the troubles the economy faces. In fact, his assertion is standard non-partisan presidential-speak for showing overall faith in the economy while acknowledging its problems. In that sense, he did nothing wrong, except that his comment played right into the meme that he's out of touch. Perhaps a little like the serial-exaggerator charges against Gore in 2000: wrong in detail, but accurate overall: after all McCain has admitted that economics is not his purview. Still, here, McCain was just being candid; his honesty doesn't imply that Obama knows more about the subject.
Similarly, Palin's answer about the Bush Doctrine is not a smoking gun, but it serves as a useful sound bit to capture her general weakness which is now acknowledged by some Republicans. I don't think her resume, while thin, should disqualify her from the Veep slot. Presumably, she'd get up to speed starting next January. Her thin resume is a weakness to be sure, but there are so many other problems with her. It really does appear that McCain either didn't vet her or took what he thought was a necessary gamble on her. A gamble that is paying off as of now. Still, she hasn't held a press conference yet which says as much as anything about the situation. Plus, new items keep emerging about her such as the credit she gives to a Kenyan witch doctor for her gubernatorial election.
These gotcha points will play a relatively minor part in the election I suspect. The economic troubles of Sunday will move economic issues to the front burner, and my guess is that an issues-oriented campaign will help Obama.
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