Palin tonight

It won't matter what the pundits think. It also won't matter what most voters think. Palin is there to energize the 20% or so of the electorate who constitute the hard-core Republican "base."

If the base likes her tonight and are motivated to vote because of her performance, she will help McCain. If the base is disappointed with her, then the "enthusiasm gap" could reemerge and McCain will have a harder time getting out the vote.

The bad news for McCain is that, if the base is expecting a return of the Palin they saw at the Republican National Convention, then they will probably be disappointed.

Agreed...there is no teleprompter to read based on words made by a group of 10 bush advisors...she's on her own to speakout memorized talking points and uniquely crafted 1-liners...i just hope some of those 1-liners dont get picked up by the media because we know they want to.

Like "Change you can xerox".

She is not there to bring in independents, moderate repubbies, Democrats or undecideds.

Her sole purpose in the mcPOW camp is to keep the base secure. So, no matter how well she does tonight, nothing will change for the Obama Campaign. Voters are not going to move to the POW Camp because of tonight.

But, she could lose some support, if she mealymouths it or gaffes, it would accelerate the downwards spiral.

mcPOW is the part of the ticket that is supposed to draw in the independents, but his number have sank since the debate, the one on "his" issue. This is probably a large part of the reason he seems so dejected, now.

before they get us, we will all know she is communicating with her base.

I'm going to cover one half of the screen tonite, I just need to see Joe.

Most people will have only seen Palin on the news, the snippets of the Couric and Gibson interviews that became viral and the SNL skits. They may have formed a somewhat negative impression of Palin that is slanting their views on McCain. If she does really well, it may reassure some that maybe all the hoopla really HAS just been media bias. On the other hand, there are bound to be a lot of borderline Republicans who are getting tired of defending Palin. If she performs badly, they may simply throw up their hands and either NOT vote or switch votes.

The base is on board. Palin has done her job there. They LOVE her. She could eat a baby polar bear raw on stage tonight and they would praise her table manners. This debate is important for the people who are teetering. And it seems to me that there are a lot more GOP teeterers than Dem teeterers.