C-SPAN just finished broadcasting a two-hour Focus Group session led by Frank Luntz questioning 25 undecided Minnesota voters on their views on health care, the two presidential candidates, and the now two vice-presidential candidates. Long story short, the undecideds at the end split 15-10 for Obama. A large majority of the voters were very troubled by McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for VP. A large majority were satisfied with Obama's choice of Biden for VP. McCain loses big-time on the "one heartbeat from the Presidency" issue.
The C-SPAN broadcast was sponsored by AARP, which got positive reactions when the 25 undecideds were shown AARP's TV ads asking voters to push for bipartisan approaches to solving health care problems. But what was surprising and encouraging here was a question posed at the end of the session on whether the undecideds would rather have a Canadian-style health care system than the present U.S. system. The vote was 7-6 in favor of the Canadian system! (With the other 12 undecideds evidently "undecided").
But back to Sarah Palin. Many of the undecideds had a favorable impression of Palin as a person, but despite this most thought she was not qualified to become President if she had to take over from McCain. Here is the real kicker for Palin. When the undecideds were shown a TV clip of Palin's speech introducing herself after her nomination, by far the most favorable tracking as she spoke was for her saying that she was against the "Bridge to Nowhere" and she had said "No thanks" to the federal handout for that bridge. Several diaries here have documented that in fact Palin was a proponent of getting that funding and building that bridge. That will become known, and when it does get across to the public at large, the "Let's give the new girl a chance" attitude being initially expressed about her will cave. She can't change the public's correct immediate assessment that she does not have the experience to step in as President, but when the public also finds out she is a major serial liar, she'll be seen as a typical political hack as well. McCain has made a major blunder in picking someone for VP who has no national experience and who McCain himself failed to vet.