No Democratic presidential candidate has won Virginia since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and the selection of Sarah Palin has improved Mr. McCain’s chances of carrying the state. Even so, Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, still clearly sees an opportunity here, and has opened more than 41 offices in the state.

Despite an intense effort to distance himself from the way his party has done business in Washington, Senator John McCain is seen by voters as far less likely to bring change to Washington than Senator Barack Obama. He is widely viewed as a “typical Republican” who would continue or expand President Bush’s policies.

Carly Fiorina, the woman John McCain sent out to defend Sarah Palin and rip anyone who calls her a tabula rasa on foreign policy and the economy, admitted Tuesday that Palin was not capable of running Hewlett-Packard. That’s pretty damning coming from Fiorina, who also was not capable of running Hewlett-Packard.

Once a reliable Democratic voting bloc, Catholics have emerged as a pivotal swing vote in recent presidential races. Evenly divided in a poll over the summer, Catholics make up about a quarter of the national electorate and about a third in the pivotal battleground states of Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Republican Vice Presidential candidate is gun-toting, God-fearing proof that we are at the mercy of morons. The comedy writer in me really, really hopes Palin gets in. Shooting, hunting, God-fearing, anti-abortion, book-banning, homophobic, white trash moron. The only problem with Sarah Palin is that she’s actually real.

A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan. For starters, the McCain plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.

Sarah Palin has many virtues. But the constructive act of governance is not one of them. Ms. Palin has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.

No longer able to remember his principles any better than he can distinguish between Sunnis and Shia, John McCain stands revealed as a guy who can be easily rolled by anyone who sells him a plan for “victory”. A McCain victory on Election Day will usher in a Palin presidency, with McCain serving as a transitional front man.

As the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin points to her management experience while deriding her Democratic rivals. But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.

Women have voted in greater proportions than men for almost three decades. But the hard-fought candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket have put new cultural and ideological elements more fully into play.