Surely that would focus more attention on the prospect of Palin being next in line. The idea of her dealing with to deal with a serious situation would drive more people into Obama’s camp, not away.

Whether her appointment was some grand conspiracy or a complete cock-up (my money’s on the latter) will be an interesting post-election issue.

Like any campaign Obama’s has made mistakes but overall it has been a very impressive operation. One of its biggest successes has been to make electing a black president appear to be a perfectly normal event to most Americans.

Just a few more weeks and then we can move on to the next global circus… probably endless growth versus climate change debates… let’s hope they go for action on both… Green energy revolution anyone?

Philip: The slapping of someone prissy… traditional republican sport I’m sure…

I don’t think so because this would have seemed too much like the old-style politics that Americans seem to be yearning to change. Clinton would have been hoeing into McCain in familiar Democratic style, but while that may have warmed the hearts of the Democratic faithful, centrist voter would have been repelled by the sense of politics as usual and the general feeling that she represented only a ‘back to the future’ alternative.

While July and August was a relatively ‘quiet’ time for the Obama campaign that should be seen as part of the the carefully calibrated buildup to the crescendo we are now starting to see wash over the country. The financial crisis has undoubtedly aided Obama enormously but it is just guesswork to claim that Obama would be struggling to match McCain’s woeful campaign without it. A better guess is that Obama would still be on top but with less than half of the WaPo poll’s 14 point lead.