Sarah Palin re-energizes McCain campaign; Obama camp sensing the challenge, fall on Hillary Clinton; McCain gets ahead of Obama in poll; McCain seeks support from conservatives
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    • Since the Republican Convention held earlier in the month, John McCain and Sarah Palin made their first public appearance together in North Viginia on September 10. The Republican candidates attracted a huge crowd of 15,000, reported to be the largest in McCain’s presidential campaign so far. Reports noted that Palin’s candidature has given a boost to the Republican campaign1. Her candidature was also likely to please the conservatives due to her ‘pro-life’ stance and opposition to abortion rights, among other issues2.

    The Democrats on their part were depending on Sen. Hillary Clinton to counter the challenge from Palin. As part of the strategy of positioning ‘female surrogates in the battleground states,’ Clinton went to Florida on September 8 to make her first campaign speech since the Democratic convention. Apart from Clinton, the Democrats were also placing their hopes on other female Governors belonging to the Party to curb the ‘Palin surge3.’

    President Bush earlier, addressing the Republican Convention via satellite on September 2, praised McCain an “independent man who thinks for himself” and who was “ready to lead4.”

    Meanwhile, developments in Iraq continued to occupy central stage for John McCain. McCain had supported the troop surge which has led to considerable stability in the country, especially in the Anbar province5.

    In other developments, McCain was placed ahead of Obama by 3 points in a poll conducted by Zogby International soon after the announcement of Palin’s candidature6. Another poll conducted by the BBC on September 10 gave the advantage to Obama. The poll however took into account the views of the ‘rest of the world’ - comprising of people in 22 countries across South America, Africa and Europe including, India and Australia7.

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