Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Expectations Game


The GOP has done one thing right this week. With all the controversy and news surrounding Sarah Palin, they have managed to inject some interest into a convention that was looking to be an dull and duller-fest. The convention has become all about Palin and not about McCain.

Everywhere I go people are asking, if the revelations around Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s selection by John McCain to be his running mate have hurt the Arizona Senator’s chances of winning the Presidency.

The truth, no matter what the polls say today, is that we don’t know yet.

The massive amount of media focus on Palin over the past 48 hours, including her daughter’s out of wedlock pregnancy and the potentially incompetent vetting of her by the McCain campaign, is setting the stage for her speech at the GOP convention here in St. Paul.

It is precisely because no one knows much about the Governor from Alaska, including, apparently the McCain campaign, that the questions surrounding her candidacy are building intense interest in her convention speech which will now be viewed by a television audience in the tens of millions.

With every question, with every controversy, the size of the audience likely to tune in Thursday to watch Governor Palin sink or swim in the treacherous waters of a full blown Presidential campaign grows.

Governor Palin’s speech is likely, one way or another, to provide the most dramatic moment of either convention. Will she falter or rise to the challenge as the nation watches?-- from Joe Trippi
So will she meet expectations? Exceed them? Does it matter? And how do you think it will change this election if the focus remains on her and not on the top of the GOP ticket?