Alpha Dogs

Howard Wolfson, in his new New Republic blog, writes:

"...ultimately voters will make their assessments based on the strength and weaknesses of the top of the tickets.

So Democrats hope!  Usually, voters do. But there's no fundamental reason why, in every instance, they will. The attention lavished on Gov. Palin is unprecedented; perhaps her pull on voters will be, too. Given the relatively low ratings for John McCain's speech (in the Gallup poll, not the Nielsen ratings), it follows that the primary reason for the energy associated with the Republican ticket now resides with Palin. Just because something hasn't happened -- just because voters haven't looked to the number two -- doesn't mean it won't ever happen. Wolfson, like other Democrats, worries that attacking Gov. Palin is foolhardy because "we are focused on Palin is a day we are not amplifying the Obama campaign's message that Senator McCain simply represents four more years of President Bush." Well, that message works in one respect -- 63% of voters tell Gallup that they think McCain is too close to Bush -- but it hasn't been sufficient to get Obama above 50%.