Hyperbole alert--tonight, Politico gushes, "all doubts were doused" after Palin's speech: "Palin’s speech so delighted some Republicans that they suggested it may instantly elevate her to GOP rock-star status and diminish presidential contenders who ran this year who may hope to seek the White House again. 'Who's most bummed?' asked one veteran Republican consultant. 'Obama? Biden? Mitt? Huck? Damn that was good.'"
The rest of the Politico piece, though, tells a somewhat more mixed story on the long-term impact the speech is likely to have:
While Palin’s debut was widely dubbed a success, there is still more work to do. A focus group of a dozen unmarried women who are either undecided voters or who are weak supporters of either Obama or McCain, convened in Las Vegas to discuss Palin’s speech as soon as it ended.
Two major themes emerged early on during their discussion: They still don’t feel they know enough about Palin — either personally or from a governing standpoint — and they are worried she doesn’t have the experience to take over the presidency should McCain die in office.
“The nation needs to know what her issues are,” said one woman, who, unprompted, added she needed to know more specifics about Palin’s policies because she worries about McCain’s advanced age. Another woman quickly agreed: “He could just keel over at any moment,” she said, adding that she wants to know “just exactly what [Palin’s] going to do, more than just hearing about her family.”
--Eve Fairbanks