Global: Palin pushes McCain up the Gallup Poll ladder

It’s been a week since the Republican National Convention and statistics are showing the convention worked in Republican nominee John McCain’s favor.

The Gallup Poll recently released scores showing that 48 per cent of registered voters would elect McCain over 45pc for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. For three of the world’s bloggers, the results didn’t come as a surprise after viewing both the Democratic and Republican Conventions.

Deagián de Bréadún, a blogger for the Irish Times ^[1] in Ireland, said his “money is on McCain at this stage,” when initially, he predicted Obama would be the next US president.

“There are four reasons why I have changed my forecast: 1) It was obvious from the Democratic Convention that a significant number of Hillary Clinton supporters were still unhappy; 2) Obama’s speech to delegates, polished as it was, did not live up to the hype; 3) McCain turned a negative into a positive when Hurricane Gustav delayed the start of the Republican gig: he visited an emergency centre in Mississippi and behaved like a President, full of soothing reassurance, whereas Obama basically issued comments to the media (in Dublin, Ohio!); 4) The Sarah Palin nomination was a master-stroke.”

Bréadún goes on to write that most Americans haven’t explored the rest of the world but still have the option of choosing its next leader and that perhaps, non-Americans should be able to vote, as well, to make up for their lack of knowledge on international affairs.

“There is a certain irony in the fact that the people choosing the next leader of the free world are in many cases so provincial. Many Americans do not even possess a passport, but they still get to choose the leader who will dominate the international stage for the next four to eight years. Given the level of interest in the election here in Europe, perhaps we should also demand the right to choose!”

Ricardo Valenzuela from Mexico and blogger for Intermex Free Market ^[2], also writes that Palin gave McCain the extra votes shown on the poll:

“McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate galvanized the Republican base that has been wary of McCain because of his clashes with religious leaders he once termed ‘agents of intolerance’ and his sponsorship of a campaign-finance law. Her Sept. 3 acceptance speech drew raves from Republicans inside the St. Paul, Minnesota, convention hall and around the country.”

Finally, Michael van der Galien of the Netherlands writes in his shared blog PoliGazette ^[3], that a Palin-like figure, is what McCain needed to get ahead and Gallup results have shown that.

“He desperately needed a bump. He had to energize his party, and he had to show that unlike what experts have been saying for months now – that this year would be the Democrats’ year – he actually has a chance. The convention and the reaction to it from the American people have clearly shown that the race is indeed wide open.”