Earlier we saw Zogby reporting McCain's convention bounce brought him into the lead against Obama and Gallup issues their polling results showing a 3 percentage point lead as well.

Gallup's caveat: Tomorrow's report will be the first in which all interviews were conducted after the conclusion of the convention.

So, McCain's numbers can still rise some more.

I would call this a convention AND Palin bounce folks!!!

No wonder Obama supporters are running scared and continuing to attack. They are obviously too slow to understand that their attacks are partially responsible for Palin's popularity.

Keep em coming!

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Clinton insiders vowed, via The Politico, that Hillary Clinton would not be anybody's attack dog when it was first announced by The New York Times that Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democratic women politicians would be dispatched and deployed to counter the energy which Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has injected into the race.

Diehard Hillary Clinton supporters against Barack Obama immediately reacted asking Hillary to not attack Palin, to not allow herself to be used in that way.

One plea came from Riverdaughter, who made a few points, the first being, "Let me get this straight, Sarah-cuda beats you up and steals your lunch money and instead of standing up for yourself, you write a little note about how she hurt your feelings as a community organizer and you send out another girl to fight your battle. Er, OK. Will you also be sending her out to do business with the Russians, the North Koreans, the health insurance biggies? How about if she does all the debates for you too? Because if you need Hillary to do all the fighting on your sorry ass behalf, then maybe she should be nominee."

Later they made their plea with to Hillary saying, "If Hillary is out there reading, don’t do it for him. Or if you must, stick to the Conflucian rules: No character assassination and no rumormongering without evidence. Actually, we can trust you to behave honorably but it’s the creeps you are promoting who won’t. So, ask yourself, where do you draw the line?

For us, this is it."

Others, such as PUMA PAC, headlined that very day with "Hey, Precious! Fight Your Own Damn Battles. Seal Your Own Damn Deal."

These are representative of what was being said when the Times ran their article.

According to The Politico piece, Clinton would continue to yoke McCain and Palin to Bush's pocketbook issues and the insider said the Obama campaign never asked Clinton to directly attack Palin.

Today's report from the LA Times' Top of the Ticket, that Clinton remained true to her word and even when given ample opportunity, refused to take "easy swings" at Sarah Palin, not once.

"No Way. No how. No McCain." This time she added, "No Palin."

The Ticket reports that while Clinton did make the comparison between McCain and Bush, she avoided saying anything harsh against McCain himself, whom she has a friendship with since he welcomed her so warmly into the Senate in 2001.

What do you think? Gender solidarity? Friendship for McCain despite their disagreements? A sign of waning enthusiasm for her own party's ticket? So much joy over the New York Giants defeat of the Washington Redskins in the NFL opener Thursday night?

Some wonder if Clinton is simply not willing to alienate her diehard supporters that she will count on if she decides to take a run at the presidency in 2012.

Whatever the reason, the Clinton insider appears to have been correct, Clinton will not run interference as anybody's attack dog against Palin.

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With the the full effects of the convention bounces just days away, Zogby International shows the McCain/Palin ticket receiving 49.7 percent of the support, with 45.9 percent going to the Obama/Biden ticket.

According to pollster John Zogby, Sarah Palin is "clearly" helping the McCain ticket.

McCain holds a 57 percent favorable rating among likely voters, which is up from 50 percent last week. McCain's favorable ratings among Independents has jumped from 49 percent last week to 61 percent now.

Barack Obama holds a 49 percent favorable rating with 50 percent holding a negative impression of him.

Among vice presidential candidates, GOP running mate, Sarah Palin holds a 54 percent favorable rating and the Democratic running mate Joe Biden holds a 49 percent favorable rating. Palin's unfavorabe rating is at 42 percent and Biden is at 47 percent.

Pollster John Zogby: "Clearly, Palin is helping the McCain ticket. She has high favorability numbers, and has unified the Republican Party. The striking thing here in this poll is that McCain has pulled ahead among Catholics by double-digits. On the other hand, Palin is not helping with likely voting women who are not aligned with either political party. The undecided independent women voters decreased this week from 15% to 7%, but those women went to Obama. Palin is also helping among men, conservatives, notably with suburban and rural voters, and with frequent Wal-Mart shoppers, who tend to be "values" voters who like a good value for their money."

Rasmussen's report for September 7, 2008 has just been released as well.

Rasmussen shows Barack Obama peaked from the Democratic convention last Tuesday with a 6 point lead, while today that is completely gone and Rasmussen shows the candidates tied at 46 percent and when leaners are included, both candidates receive 48 percent.

The report explains Rasmussen runs a three day average rolling poll, which means the full results of the Republican convention with be on Monday, when the completed interviews all include McCain's speech.

Rasmussen reports that as of Tuesday or Wednesday the full effects of both conventions will be fairly clear.

McCain leads in support among men and Obama leads in support among women, this report by Rasmussen confirms Zogby's findings that both McCain and Palin hold higher favorable ratings with McCain at 58 percent and Obama holding 56 and for Palin the favorable rating is at 58 percent while Biden holds a 48 percent favorable rating.

Forty-two percent (42%) of voters say that economic issues are most important this year and Obama holds a 34-point advantage among these voters.

Twenty-four percent (24%) of voters say the national security issues are most important. Among these voters its McCain by 39.

The Republican hopeful also leads by wide margins among those who consider fiscal issues or cultural issues most important. Obama leads among those primarily interested in domestic programs such as Social Security and health care.

While these Rasmussen numbers do not include full interviews conducted after John McCain's speech, this report does indicate these interviews were conducted after Palin's speech on Wednesday.

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The two presidential candidates will be putting aside the Democratic and Republican title for a brief period on 9/11 to appear together in New York at Ground Zero which was one of the locations of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 as reported by Yahoo News.

The campaigns issued a joint statement which said:

"On September 11, 2008, we will join together to mark the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at Ground Zero.

"All of us came together on 9/11 -- not as Democrats or Republicans -- but as Americans. In smoke-filled corridors and on the steps of the Capitol; at blood banks and at vigils -- we were united as one American family. On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity, to honor the memory of each and every American who died, and to grieve with the families and friends who lost loved ones. We will also give thanks for the firefighters, police, and emergency responders who set a heroic example of selfless service, and for the men and women who serve today in defense of the freedom and security that came under attack in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania."

The idea was approached while Barack Obama was on the phone with John McCain after calling to congratulate him on the official nomination to be the Republican presidential candidate, where they both agreed to make the appearance together instead of doing so separately.

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It was reported yesterday that Obama's eight point convention bounce according to CBS had leveled out within a week, showing McCain and Obama tied with 42 percent each and Rasmussen showing Obama retaining a one point lead, with neither of the polls fully indicative of the full Republican convention bounce, which wasn't expected to be fully reported until Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Today Gallup has issued their report saying, "Barack Obama's advantage over John McCain has been shrinking since the start of the Republican National Convention, and is now down to just two percentage points -- 47% to 45% -- too close to call."

Gallup reports that these new numbers only "partially" reflect public opinion of Wednesday and Thursday of the Republican Convention where Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and John McCain gave their speeches. The continue on to indicate "This includes a strong night for McCain in Friday's interviewing, the first full night of interviewing following his acceptance speech."

The first Gallup Poll Daily tracking report based on interviewing conducted entirely after McCain's speech (from Friday through Sunday) will be published on Monday. The test for McCain will be whether he can do more than return the race to the absolute tie seen at the beginning of the convention period, and actually lead Obama by a significant margin for the first time since late April/early May

It will not be evident as Gallup noted in the quote above, how much of a bounce the McCain/Palin campaign will see at its fullest, but does show the pattern that both CBS and Rasmussen expressed in their reports from yesterday and the day before.

By Monday I will not be surprised to see McCain/Palin leading above the margin of error percentages after such strong showings as well as record breaking amounts of viewers for their speeches.

Expect attacks on Palin to get more vitriolic and nasty despite the fact that the previous ones have backfired resoundingly.

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Below there is a bonus of a tribute from PUMA to McCain and Palin, via video.

Earlier we found out Barack Obama was calling in the big guns to fight his battles.... the women...why? Because he cannot fight his own battles against the big bad Sarah Palin.

Unless he is trying to play the race card...yet again.

“And I know that the temptation is to say, ‘You know what? …The guy hasn’t been there that long in Washington.,’ You know, ‘he’s got funny name,’ You know, ‘we’re not sure about him,’” Obama continued. “And that’s what the Republicans, when they say, ‘This isn’t about issues, it’s about personalities,’ what they’re really saying is, ‘We’re going to try to scare people about Barack. So we’re going to say that you know, maybe he’s got Muslim connections or we’re going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals or he’s not patriotic.’

Okay, everyone at the same time.....AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, poor thing.

Desperation makes for foolish moves and that is one of the most foolish I have seen in a while....ummm.... since the last time he played it.

Why is Obama desperate?

His polling numbers and convention bounce are gone, his highly touted speech got less television viewers that Job McCain and McCain and Palin combined received 14 million more viewers than Obama and Biden did combined and Barack Obama is beginning to understand that he has messed up, continuously, with his latest and most devastating screw up being his lack of judgment in not choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

The stink of desperation is starting to make itself known all around Obama and I cannot think of any people more happy to see him running scared as the folks at No Quarter and the PUMA's.

Here is a tribute from PUMAS to Sarah Palin and John McCain, via video below, titled "Sarah Palin - America's VP (Clinton's 18 Million PUMA Democrats thank and celebrate John McCain's wisdom on the pick)"

Looks like Sarah Palin is appealing to more than just conservatives.... no wonder Obama is running scared and trying to pathetically play the race card...if no one else will play it, I guess he has to attempt to play it himself.

Pitiful and laughable.

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The television stations tracked for John McCain's speech, according to Bloomberg, were CBS, ABC, NBC and the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo as well as the cable stations MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.

The television stations tracked for Barack Obama's speech were CBS, ABC, NBC and the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo as well as the cable stations MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Black Entertainment Television and TV One.

Black Entertainment Television and TV One did not air the McCain speech.

The last night of the Republican gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota, was seen in 28.3 million homes, breaking the record of the 27.7 million who tuned in for Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention. McCain's ratings are the highest for a political convention since Nielsen began collecting data in 1960.

Combined, McCain and Palin had 76.2 million viewers in comparison to Barack Obama and Joe Biden who had 62.4 million viewers.

The Republican nominee's audience last night also exceeded the average viewing audience for the Beijing Olympics, a separate Nielsen report showed. U.S. Olympics viewers averaged 27.7 million a night, making the games the most watched.

TV Week breaks the numbers down a bit for ABC, NBC and CBS.

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MSNBC is reporting that at least 5,000 readers of the US Weekly magazine have canceled their subscription and the number could be up to 10,000. This is before the weekend edition hits the majority of their subscribers.

All because they decided ahead of time that Sarah Palin was going to be a flop.

“When Us went to print Monday night, it looked like the ticket was falling apart," says one magazine editor. “They went to print thinking Palin was dead in the water, and their mistake was thinking everyone who reads Us is a Democrat, when they’re not. Readers are loyal, but the base of a political party is more loyal. They don’t need to read the magazine when there’s so much press around it to know to be upset.”

Upset might be an understatement: One Us advertiser has admitted that they’ve received calls from angry former subscribers threatening to boycott their products. “(Us publisher) Jann Wenner supports Obama, Wenner media decided to follow the buzz around Palin before her speech, and now subscribers feel like a vote has been cast on their behalf," says another magazine editor. “It’s going to be tough to bounce back from this one. Especially if the advertisers get involved. If they get nervous, that can hurt all of us.”

HEH

Looks like everybody underestimated the appeal of Sarah Palin and Obama is now desperate so he is going to "dispatch" Hillary Clinton and other prominent females to attempt to counter the "Palin effect."

First off, "dispatch"? Are they serious, what are these women to Obama, tools? Servants to "The One?"

Obama has learned nothing about Hillary Clinton diehard supporters and if he thinks they are going to appreciate Hillary, who in their eyes was snubbed by not being chosen as VP, after the hard fought battle of the primaries where she received more popular votes than he did, being used and abused some more.....well, I just have one question.

Is he and his campaign deliberately trying to hand this election over by alienating even more woman from the Democratic Party?

The sheer "audacity" of Obama is becoming apparent to many at this point.

Let us take a gander at how some diehard Hillary supporters, those over at Puma Pac, are reacting to this audacity.

Headline "Hey, Precious! Fight Your Own Damn Battles. Seal Your Own Damn Deal."

Not looking like a favorable reaction just by the title, now is it?

The post is even worse.

News last night from The NY Times, via Riverdaughter, that Obama has run home to Big Sister to plead with her to fight his battle with Saracuda Palin for him. Oh, the poor Precious! Can’t face a tough woman on his own, huh? What’s the matter Barack? Just tell Saracuda that she’s likable enough. Call her a Sweetie and tell the media that she gets moody and bitchy periodically when she’s feeling down. That oughtta work. Or send Sebelius — woo-hoo! I’m sure she can take on Palin and come out of the encounter victorious.

Yes, his "audacity" is working out real good for him with the PUMA Pac Hillary supporters, now isn't it?

Make sure to go check out the comment section, to get a good feel of how utterly disgusted these folks are over Obama.

Riverdaughter, linked in the quote above, is far more vocal about this news about Obama using Hillary to fight his battles against the rough and tough Sarah Palin:

Let me get this straight, Sarah-cuda beats you up and steals your lunch money and instead of standing up for yourself, you send out a little note about how she hurt your feelings as a community organizer and you send out another girl to fight your battle. Er, OK. Will you also be sending her out to do business with the Russians, the North Koreans, the health insurance biggies? How about if she does all the debates for you too? Because if you need Hillary to do all the fighting on your sorry ass behalf, then maybe she should be nominee.

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It won’t do you a bit of good. We LOVE Hillary Clinton and we want you to treat her with respect. If you send her to Florida to kick in Sarah’s teeth, we will see it as a mark of disrespect for her. She is a brilliant politician and a dedicated public servant, not your personal gladiator.

Guess Obama is showing how weak he truly is...imagine this weakness shown in running the country.

The new polls, which haven't even accounted for Palin and McCain's speech yet, show that Obama's Convention bounce totally evaporated and the race is back to a tie and that is just as McCain's convention bounce has just began.

Yes....today has shaped up to be a good day so far..... For the McCain/Palin ticket.

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Yesterday CBS released their presidential tracking poll, as reported by The Politico, show the expected convention bounce has begun for the McCain campaign, which has brought the race back to the neck and neck status, with each candidate receiving 42 percent.

According to the CBS poll, 12 percent of voters are still undecided and the convention bounce for Obama of 8 points, which had him ahead by 48 percent to 40 percent the week before, had been erased.

CBS polling concluded Wednesday, so it does not include any effect from last night’s speech by Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

The Politico report was written before the latest Rasmussen rolling three day poll was released this morning, which confirms the CBS poll's assertion that the previous Democratic bounce is gone.

Rasmussen explains:

Virtually all of the interviews for today’s update were completed before McCain’s speech last night. Roughly two-thirds of the interviews were completed before Palin’s speech on Wednesday night.

Accurate reflections of the whole Republican Convention bounce will not be seen, according to that explanation from Rasmussen about the timing of the interviews, until Monday at the soonest, perhaps Tuesday, when all speeches, including John McCain's and his vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin's will be inclusive to the results.

Rasmussen shows that Barack Obama has 46 percent while John McCain holds 45 percent.

Rasmussen also shows favorabe ratings, which shows that both McCain and Obama hold a 57 percent favorable rating and when asked about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, 58 percent gave her a favorable rating with 40 percent being listed as "very favorable."

51 percent of voters believe John McCain made the right choice in choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate while 47 percent believe Barack Obama made the right choice in choosing Joe Biden as his running mate.

Voters are evenly decided as to whether Sarah Palin or Barack Obama has better experience to be the President.

[Update] TechCrunch is reporting that according to Google tending data, McCain "quickly gaining ground" in online hits to the websites of the candidates.

Both Obama and Mccain's websites have shown a spike, McCain's since he announced Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate and Obama's being credited to his speech.

They also report that Hitwise shows the same tightening in the gap, with Obama still ahead as Mccain gains ground, but neither candidate is comparing to Sarah Palin in the captivation of the web audience.

Even after Palin's initial spike they show that "Palin’s search volume is more than double McCain’s and Obama’s."

This in no way indicates how people will vote, just the amount of attention the candidates are garnering online.

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