CNN: Palin excitement levels off as Democrats regain lead
(CNN) -- Is America's honeymoon with Sarah Palin over? Polls suggest that might be so. Palin appears to be losing some of her initial appeal as Democrats make gains in the polls.
The Alaska governor came out swinging at the Republican National Convention, energizing her party's base and shifting the momentum to John McCain's favor. At rallies in the week following the convention, the McCain-Palin duo saw their best attendance and a newfound zeal, and the Republican ticket took the lead in national polls for the first time. But polls show that the momentum has shifted once again.
Palin's favorable rating is at 40 percent, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll. That's down 4 points from last week. Her unfavorable rating is at 30 percent, rising 8 points in a week....
(T)his week, the Democrats recaptured the headlines, and Obama regained his lead in the national polls. CNN's latest poll of polls, out Thursday afternoon, shows him ahead of McCain by 3 points, 47 percent to 44 percent....
After a week in which McCain put Obama on the defensive over allegations of playing the gender card, the economic crisis has given Obama an opportunity to go on the offense. Most Americans see Obama as more capable than John McCain when it comes to handling the economy, polls show. The Illinois senator has been aggressively attacking what he sees as shortcomings in McCain's economic plans.
Also this week, McCain handed Obama ammunition for what has turned out to be a weeklong attack. Despite the shake up on Wall Street, McCain said Monday that "the fundamentals of the American economy are strong."...
Obama has filled this week's campaign speeches with a focused view of his economic agenda and sound-bite friendly slams to bruise McCain's image. "This is somebody who has been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he is the one who is going to take on the old boys network. The old boys network, in the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting," he said Wednesday....
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/18/palin.appeal/index.html