Free Republic

Can't link directly.

Sarah Palin's explosive debut at the Republican convention has helped John McCain surge ahead of Barack Obama in the race for the White House. One leading poll put Mr McCain nearly 4 per cent ahead - just days after trailing his Democrat rival by as many as eight points. It is the first time the 72-year-old Arizona senator has held a significant lead since early May. Pundits and pollsters put the comeback down to 'the Palin effect'. They claimed the Republican vice-presidential candidate's punchy convention speech deserved much of the credit for helping Mr McCain bounce back. Her selection as...

Whether or not Sarah Palin wins, for American women, politics will never be the same again, says Anne Applebaum. .....The interest in her (Palin) and her life story is no fluke, either. Following the failure of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Palin is suddenly, and flamboyantly, the most prominent female politician in the country. At age 44, she is also the most prominent representative of her generation of women – a generation which already looks set to be different, in important ways, from its predecessors. Unlike Hillary and her contemporaries, the women of Palin’s generation are not feminists, but rather post-feminist. Born...

Just listen to the crowd. I’ve honestly never seen anything like this for a conservative politician before. Update: Maverick by four, says Zogby. “Clearly, Palin is helping the McCain ticket.”