Where Do We Stand?

You've probably already heard that this could be the most important election of your life so far.  If you're in your thirties like me, that's a fact.  No matter if your a Republican or Democrat, your vote does matter this year.  As we witnessed in both 2000 and 2004, every vote counts, so make your voice heard this November.

Now that the conventions are over, where do we stand?

Let's break this down.

VP Choices - As much as it pains me to admit it, McCain is really winning the battle on this one. We can all sit here and gleefully wait for Palin to implode on her own, but what if that doesn't happen? Really, all she has to do is slide by and she wins. There are no expectations that she has to perform.

Conventions – Many of us thought (including me) that the RNC was an unbelievable display of tastelessness, but the American public and the Republican base sure didn't think so. McCain's bounce is larger than the Democrats experienced after their convention. This doesn't bode well for the long-term trending.  But before we got off and get really nervous about the new numbers out today, let's give it a couple weeks.  I'm sure that there are plenty of Americans that will forget about McCain's speech at the RNC by the end of September.

So what's left?

The Debates- Ok, Obama is a good debater, but he is not an excellent one, and likely he is going to have some serious issues during the foreign policy debate now that he admitted on O'Reilly that the "surge is succeeding beyond anyone's wildest expectations." Also, Biden is going to have to be the best he's ever been. Basically, the Democrats need everything to go flawlessly, and there is no margin of error for either of the candidates.  This is their battle to lose.

I am not trying to be doom and gloom here, but the Obama campaign has to step it up. NOW.

My only consultation is that Obama took on the greatest campaigning machine in a generation, the Clintons, and managed to win. We need them to fire back. WHERE ARE THEY?