A Sunday mixed bag

At Presopundit: A photo and link to video of Palin's speech in Colorado today. And via the same, numerous Palin rumors debunked (we're big on that, here).

MSNBC has a chat with Maria Bartiromo and Tim Pawlenty about Sarah Palin.

Spengler writes:

[R]ejecting Clinton in favor of ... Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain's selection was a statement of strength. ... That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. ...

Obama evidently chose [Biden] to assuage critics who point to his lack of foreign policy credentials. That was a deadly error, for by appearing to concede the critics' claim that he knows little about foreign policy, Obama raised questions about whether he is qualified to be president in the first place. ... [Palin,] to be sure, hasn't any business running for vice president of the United States with her thin resume. McCain and his people know this perfectly well, and that is precisely why they put her on the ticket. If Palin is unqualified to be vice president, all the less so is Obama qualified to be president.

McCain has certified his authenticity for the voters. He's now the outsider, the reformer, the maverick, the war hero running next to the Alaskan amazon with a union steelworker spouse. Obama, who styled himself an agent of change, took his image for granted, and attempted to ensure himself victory by doing the cautious thing. He is trapped in a losing position, and there is nothing he can do to get out of it.

(I left out another good point to strengthen the flow of the quote, that "[t]he Democratic order of battle was to tie McCain to the Bush administration and attack McCain by attacking Bush. With Palin on the ticket, McCain has re-emerged as the maverick he really is.")

Eugene Volokh eviscerates Gloria Steinem's claim that Palin "opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality."

Sir David Frum discusses why Palin needs to take questions; he's right, but he has to understand that the fundamental maxim of conservatism is that the future will probably be like the past, and to my mind, the media are likely to continue to treat Palin they way they have hitherto, i.e. as a wolfpack determined to tear down the threat posed by Palin to Obama. Charlie Gibson will be the first member of the media to have a chance to redeem himself, we are told.

There's this from Patterico and this from the WaPo on (dare I call it) "troopergate."

CBS news agrees that picking Palin has fundamentally changed the game.

And lastly, some poll numbers: Rasmussen has McCain and Obama tied. Gallup has McCain leading Obama by two points. And (via Althouse) Zogby has McCain leading Obama by just shy of four points. Whew!