McCain is still pretty confident.

McCain brushes off polls, says 'we're doing fine'

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/campaign.wrap/index.html

Despite his sagging poll numbers, Sen. John McCain said Sunday that he is "very happy with where we are" and very proud of his campaign.
Sen. John McCain says his campaign is "very competitive" in key states.

"We're doing fine," the Arizona senator said in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We are very competitive in many of the battleground states."

McCain brushed off polls that show him trailing Sen. Barack Obama, saying those numbers are "all over the map."

"Those polls have consistently shown me much further behind than we actually are. It all depends on the voter turnout ... we're doing fine. We have closed in the last week." he said. State-by-state polling

Obama leads McCain by 8 percentage points (50-42 percent), according to CNN's latest average of national polls.

McCain also spoke out against recent criticism of his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin.

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests that Americans have an increasingly negative view of the Alaska governor.

According to that poll, 46 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion of Palin, compared with 59 percent at the time of the Republican National Convention. The poll showed an increase in the number of people who have an unfavorable view of her -- 51 percent compared with 29 percent in early September.

The poll, conducted October 20-23, has a sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

McCain said Palin "needs no defense."

"I don't defend her. I praise her," McCain said. "She has more executive experience than Sen. [Joe] Biden and Sen. Obama together."

McCain acknowledged that he and Palin disagree on some issues, but said it was "because we are both mavericks."

"But we share the same goal of cleaning up Washington. We will clean up and reform Washington together, and she has the credentials, and the vision, and the dynamism and the strength to do that," he said.

Sources have told CNN that long-brewing tensions between Palin and key McCain aides have been intensifying.

Several McCain advisers suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue."

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

With just nine days left to campaign, the candidates and their running mates are focusing their attention on the battleground states as they try to turn out the vote and woo those who are still undecided.

McCain on Sunday was campaigning in Iowa, where Palin campaigned the day before. The latest polls show McCain trailing by double digits there.

Palin on Sunday had events scheduled in Florida and North Carolina. CNN's latest polls show a tight race in both states.

Obama on Sunday was in Colorado, a state that voted for President Bush in 2004. He has a 7-point lead there, according to CNN's average of Colorado polls.
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Biden was in his home state of Delaware on Sunday with no public events scheduled.

CNN's poll of national polls consists of seven surveys: Newsweek (October 22-23), ABC/Washington Post (October 21-24), Fox/Opinion Dynamics (October 20-21), Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (October 22-24), Gallup (October 22-24), Diageo/Hotline (October 22-24), and IBD/TIPP (October 20-24). It does not have a sampling error.

So behind all that optimism, do you think McCain is kicking himself for choosing Palin?

He was kicking himself for it before he even announced her i imagine.

He wanted Liberman... everyone else in the campaign wanted Romney.

She was a "Compromise" pick.

One of the few people who was really conservative in social values... yet also anti-corruption. (For Alaska standards anyway.  She's living it up there still, but a lot less then previous govoners and standing up to oil companies for once.)

The farther right, or left you go... the more corrupt the polticians tend to be.

He shoulda went with his first insticts and just hope the right wingers come out and vote. 

Though Obama was making serious inroads with evangelicals by promising them a lot more money via faith based spending and his use of religious buzz words... so McCain felt pressured.

Realistically, this election will (probably) be so close because McCain chose Palin ...

John McCain has difficulty relating to average-ordinary working/middle-class Americans, fiscally conservative people, and socially conservative people; these are the voters that are most commonly considered the “Base” of the Republican party and without them it would be difficult to win an election.

There are no established conservative-republicans who could have attracted the attention and support from the Republican base like Sarah Palin has.

As much as people are likely going to blame Palin if McCain loses, she really is not that big of a problem ...

John McCain was still very competitive with Barack Obama through all the bumps that were from announcing Sarah Palin, his campaign really ran into trouble when the credit markets froze up and the government announced a massive bail-out. John McCain tried to use the crisis for political gain and handled the situation 100% wrong ... Rather than bailing out banks and creating one of the most pork filled bills in American History, he should have stood up and said "No"

What if he had chosen someone who knew a lot about the economy?

But when I wrote that, I was thinking more about the poll numbers which show Palin is disliked by more than half of republicans. This means Palin wasn't a good choice, doesn't it?

I hadn't thought of it that way.

About going right and corruption, you could say that about the left too.  Generally moderate politicians believe what they are saying, those on the outer fringe say shit to get elected.

They call Obama left, and they called Pres. Bush (43) right, but both are pretty standard (in record, not rhetoric) on post-Depression American  policy.  The only thing really bad things that Bush did, are preemption and the total disassembly of the constitution in regards to law enforcement.  I know that sounds silly, but he really didn't go that far off of what every other POTUS has done.

You win primaries by electrifying the base, not elections.  It doesn't matter if you win your base (who will probably vote for you anyways), it matters if you win the people in the middle of the electorate.  Sarah Palin does not appeal to people in the middle of the electorate.

http://suzieqq.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/palin-rising-unfavorable-ratings-a-major-drawback-for-mccain-candidacy/

Palin’s qualifications to be president now rank as voters’ top concern about John McCain’s candidacy - “ahead of continuing President Bush’s policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq,” according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Fifty-five percent of respondents now say Palin is not qualified to serve as president, a five-point jump from the previous NBC/WSJ survey.

In addition, for the first time, more voters have a negative opinion of her than a positive one. In the survey, 47 percent view her negatively, versus 38 percent who see her in a positive light.
That’s a striking shift since McCain chose Palin as his running mate in early September, when she held a 47 to 27 percent positive rating.

How many Democrats really "Like" Hillary Clinton?
If Democrats actually were told what Joe Bidon stood for how many would "Like" him?

Being a successful politician is rarely about being liked, they typically only have to have enough support from their part to win a nomination and then they have to be respected enough to get a decent voter turnout.

I don't really think that having a running mate with a better ecconomic background would have helped McCain that much; people were upset with him not because of his policies or understanding, but they were upset with his inability to respond to their desires.

Personally, I think Bobby Jindal might have been a better choice but that is another topic entirely.

Don't focus too much on the words I used. The poll didn't really ask if they "liked" Palin. I don't have the link but it was some CNN article I believe.