No need to hit the panic button

Yglesias makes a good point-

A remarkable number of liberals of my acquaintance seemed ready to move into panic mood after it turns out that Sarah Palin can deliver a competent attack dog speech. I don’t see why. It was competent, but no more than that. And it wasn’t a speech that even tried to do either of things that John McCain’s campaign needs to do — separate McCain from George W. Bush or convince people that McCain can improve the economy. It didn’t even try to address those subjects.

This stops the downward spiral, maybe, until perhaps people focus on the fact that Palin’s signature accomplishment as Governor of Alaska was to oppose a bridge project that she in fact favored, but McCain was losing the race before Palin was ever announced. Stopping the slide doesn’t get you to a win.

I'll add that oftentimes the "fire up the base" strategy winds up following the rules of Newtonian physics- there's an equal and opposite reaction among the other guy's base. I got the following email from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe this morning:

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack's experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.Let's clarify something for them right now.Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

I think that as many Republicans as were turned on last night, an equal number of Democrats will be motivated to donate and volunteer in order to make sure that McCain and Palin don't win. On top of that, there are going to be a good number of independents massively turned off by the negativism and unprofessionalism displayed last night. I'm looking forward to seeing the polls in a couple days.