In a bizarre way, Palin's elite-bashing speech was a big hit with... elites! Most of the pundits, reporters and East coast yuppies I know momentarily paused between sneers at rural America and the military to declare that the Barracuda did a fearsomely good job. And I think it's pretty indisputable that the GOP base agrees. But what about swing voters? The ones Jake Tapper spoke to were not impressed.
Still, it seems likely that the vaunted "enthusiasm gap" will close. Which has to make the Obama campaign more nervous than ever about whether its hordes of young supporters will actually turn out on Election Day. I would think yes, but historically not many people have won elections based on that proposition (although that's not the entire Obama game plan, of course).
--Michael Crowley