Sarah Barracuda

A lot of people are thrilled about the new Gallup numbers, showing McCain pulling ahead of Obama by three points. The Gallup numbers are not even "likely" voters - they're merely "registered" voters, a cohort that traditionally leans Democrat significantly more than actual Election Day voters. That means in all likelihood Obama is more than three points behind. Add in the Bradley/Wilder Effect, and it is entirely possible that Obama is eight or more points behind McCain.

My observation is that by breaking his pledge and opting out of public financing, Obama has made his ability to raise money a hostage to his poll performance. Fundraisers get paid back in favors - quid pro quo. If they no longer believe in the likelihood of an Obama Administration, they will forget about getting paid back and they'll walk away.

So how will Obama keep his campaign - fueled solely on optimism and abundant fundraising - running if the enthusiasm dries up? He'll have to rely on the audacity of hate, and if you've been following lefty blogs for the last week you're probably aware that the Democrats have that in abundance. We might see something much uglier than the 2000 Florida saga unfold.

Update: Among likely voters, Gallup says McCain-Palin now up by 10 points: 54 to 44. Wow.

The Democrats just never seem to be able to figure out how to properly treat the American flag. See this story today at World Net Daily:

Following their national convention in Denver last week, Democratic organizers heaped up thousands of unused U.S. flags and threw them away, but the McCain campaign has since salvaged the Star-Spangled Banners and intends to use them at a rally in Colorado Springs.

A Denver Post blog reports that a worker at Denver's Invesco Field discovered the discarded flags following Barack Obama's nomination speech at the mile-high stadium last week.

The story at the link lists several other recent incidents involving failure to properly respect Old Glory. To me, though, the textbook example will always be what the Democrats did at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, when special flags were made up in salmon, eggshell and azure, because red, white and blue look harsh on TV.

In case you were wondering about what Barack Obama did as a 'community organizer', IBD explains what goes on at 'Public Allies', a group co-founded by Barack Obama in 1992:

Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas. They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they'll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of "social change."

Just remember that when some people say they want to change the world, it doesn't necessarily mean they want to make it a better place.

[Michelle's Boot Camps For Radicals - IBD]

This spot is titled "Alaska Maverick" and contrasts Palin's record with Obama's. Also, by linking the experience of the two, the McCain campaign puts the Obama campaign on the defensive. After all, Obama and Palin are in the same age group and have put in a similar amount of time in politics. And while Obama spent the last two years running a presidential campaign, Palin spent it running the state government of Alaska. If Obama attacks Palin's qualifications, he also attacks his own.

The campaign is finally hitting back hard. Keep it up!

At work today I caught some of the "Palin has no experience" flak from my co-workers, and I was genuinely surprised that they grew testy when I suggested Palin has at least as much experience as Obama.

Palin rose to the governorship of Alaska while raising four kids and working a real job running a small business. She chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for two years before winning the governorship, and she helped take down several corrupt officials from her own party. And now she's held the job of governor of Alaska for two years, accomplishing a number of important things, especially including energy policy reforms and making it easier and cheaper to get oil down to the lower 48 from Alaska.

Barack Obama's public life has consisted of fairly unimpressive terms in the Illinois legislature, plus a largely-absentee career as a a U.S. Senator while he's run for president the last two years. He decided to run for president after just five months in the U.S. Senate. Aside from a brief period working for a law firm, he doesn't appear to have ever held a real job.

While Sarah Palin's job was working her butt off raising four kids, helping to run a commercial fishing business and serving as mayor of her town, Barack Obama was something called a "community organizer".

I don't mind that some people think Barack Obama has the experience to be president. I don't even mind that some of them - despite the evidence - think he's more experienced than Sarah Palin. However, it does annoy me that some think questions about Obama's qualifications are unfair when to me his background seems vaporous prior to his arrival in the U.S. Senate in 2005. Worse, the job of U.S. Senator is something he apparently found uninteresting, because he almost immediately set out running for president.

Sarah Palin won the position of Governor of Alaska and she has spent the last two years doing the job and doing it well.