All  the smiles you see over there in the John McCain camp are well deserved.  Sarah Palin has single handedly reframed this campaign for the White House and for two weeks Obama and company helped her.

       And the R's can thank Mike Dukakis for that.

       When the diminutive former governor of Massachusetts ran for president, he made the fatal mistake of taking the rhetorical high road and ignored a plethora of George H. Bush attack ads.  Democrats learned never to do that again and so when Palin did her pit bull stuff, the D's pushed back.

       If fact you had the unprecedented scene of the democratic candidate for president blasting a V.P. candidate from the other side. 

     =C 2 Not anymore.

       Last week when the governor was quizzed about Palin, Gov. Jennifer Granholm had the chance to take on her female counterpart, but she did not.  Even on the issue of Palin's experience to be president, the governor confessed she didn't think she had it, but "I'm only one person…that is up to the voters to decide" she meekly added. 

       The First Gentleman Dan Mulhern also did a 180.  At first he wondered if Palin could be V.P. with a special needs baby and a soon to be teenage mom in the family.  He then changed his tune and lowered the temperature on his Palin observations.

       This is just a guess, but bet the word has gone out in democratic circles to ignore the Tina Fay look-a-like and we'll get a chance to test the theory after the Joe Biden visit here on Monday.  At a stop over the weekend in another state, he mentioned her name only once.  And during his comments in St. Clair Shores, he rattled on about his "personal friend" John McCain who "was out of touch."  Palin was not the focal point of the attacks.

       So give the McCain folks credit.  They had Obama team off message and on defense and each day the democrats were hitting Palin was one less day that they talked about the economy, the need for change, etc. etc. etc.

       Watch for that to change, starting right now and right here in Michigan.

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