No Longer An Asset

Here's Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com on the latest polls. Silver says McCain has two problems - first: his post-convention bounce was not "robust" and didn't survive the eruption of bad news from Wall Street.

McCain's other problem is that Sarah Palin may no longer be an asset to the ticket; in fact, she may be a liability. Averaging the candidates' favorability scores across four recent polls -- as one should always try and do when looking at favorability numbers since they can vary greatly depending on question wording -- Palin now has the worst net scores among the four principals in the race.

Palin's average favorability score is now a +7 -- about 10 points behind Joe Biden's numbers. Perhaps more importantly, these numbers are 10-15 points behind where Palin's numbers were just a week or so ago.

If voters come in not knowing very much about a candidate -- and the more they see of the candidate, the less they like of the candidate -- this is a major concern.

Isn't it interesting? A man recklessly opposes regulatory oversight of the financial markets for 26 years and is surprised when things fall apart. That same man recklessly picks a lightweight running mate and is surprised that Americans are not impressed. Can we afford another reckless cowboy in the White House?

John McCain is not ready to be President of the United States of America.

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