Governor Palin in the Midwest

Byron York on National Review Online

A former city councilman here in Chillicothe, Rinehart doesn't pretend to love John McCain. After McCain wrapped up the nomination last February, Rinehart, a serious conservative who's also a former local Bush campaign co-chairman, felt what he calls "Carter malaise." He wasn't inclined to take part in the campaign. "My attitude was, I'm going to the polls and that's it - no grassrooting, no nothing."

And then McCain picked Palin. "I absolutely loved it," Rinehart tells me. "It was a game-changer for me. It was huge for me as a conservative for some light at the end of the tunnel."

Following Palin around Ohio and Pennsylvania in the last days of the campaign, you meet a lot of Republicans like Rinehart. They don't hate McCain - they have too much respect for what he's done in his life - but they felt a distinct shortage of enthusiasm for his candidacy until he picked Palin. Talking to voters in these key states, it's clear that McCain shouldn't have had to rely on something so momentous as his vice-presidential pick to fire up a constituency whose support he should have already had, but that is what happened.

Now, there's real enthusiasm for Palin. Standing in front of the picture-perfect 1858 courthouse in Chillicothe, she draws about as many people as Barack Obama himself drew earlier this month. And they're just as excited to see her. "Love her," one woman tells me. "She's a great gal." "It's exciting," says another woman. "She just speaks what I think is the truth, right down to earth," says a man.

Let's imagine that McCain had made a conventional pick such as Tom Ridge or Tim Pawlenty or even an out-of-the-box Joe Lieberman head move.

Does anyone out there think his VP nominee would be getting crowds like this?



Of course not. And so it would be up to McCain himself, not exactly Mr. excitement, to try to draw out some pathetic little crowd that would be continually shown as quite pathetic compared to The One. And his VP would be lucky to get that many.

Instead Sarah Palin is drawing five digit crowds wherever she goes. She is equalling Obama in crowd size and Biden? Forget about it. He's doing about as well as he did in January. She may be a drag on the ticket in New York and California, but in Marietta, OH and Raleigh, NC, she is carrying McCain and allowing him a chance to win.