Independents moving to McCain

Washington Times:

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has gotten a jolt of support right where he wanted it - from the independent voters whom he courted so aggressively at last week's convention - and now holds a healthy lead over his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, in the chase for that key constituency.

A Gallup Poll to be released Tuesday shows that Mr. McCain's backing among independent voters jumped 12 percentage points in recent days, providing welcome news for a Republican candidate who has been torn between nurturing his maverick appeal to independents and trying to appease the party's conservative base.

He somehow satisfied both groups at the party convention last week in St. Paul, Minn., where he energized core Republican voters by naming Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, but also emphasized the ticket's commitment to changing Washington through bipartisanship.

"Clearly, he is moving on the independents," Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport said of the new survey that helps explain how Mr. McCain of Arizona gained ground.

The poll shows support for Mr. McCain among independents spiked from 40 percent to 52 percent, his largest share of the independent vote since Gallup began tracking the race.

Mr. McCain also gained five points among Democrats, from 9 percent to 14 percent.

Compounding Mr. Obama's challenges, about 29 percent of former rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers - more than 5 million voters - say they will cast their ballots for Mr. McCain, according to pollster John Zogby.

"He's a good candidate and a resilient fellow. We've just got to see how resilient a guy he is," Mr. Zogby said.

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I think at this point McCain is a pretty well known commodity. He has energized his base with the Palin pick and also pulled in the independents. The Obama and Democrat campaigns will being going negative now to try to drag him and Palin down. That is going to be a difficult task. Since Palin is basically a base candidate, attacks on her will not make that much difference. Snarky attacks on McCain are also not likely to move voters.