Obama speech bounce: nil

Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll today shows the same four-point lead Barack Obama held yesterday over John McCain.  This poll, the first to show reaction from Obama’s speech, indicates that Obama didn’t get any more bounce out of his Invesco Field appearance than he received from the Democratic convention as a whole:

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The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday is the first to include reaction to both Barack Obama’s acceptance speech and John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin to be his running mate. The numbers are little changed since yesterday and show Barack Obama attracting 47% of the vote nationwide while John McCain earns 43%. When “leaners” are included, it’s Obama 49% and McCain 45%.

In other words, except for the fundraising activities associated with it, the Obama speech was essentially a bust.  Obama had stumbled into the convention trailing McCain among likely voters and losing momentum all summer long.  His team badly fumbled the announcement of Joe Biden as his running mate, and he needed a significant bounce coming out of Denver to put space between him and McCain.  Instead, so far Obama has not yet escaped the margin of error — and McCain has his own convention coming this week to steal oxygen from his campaign.

I warned yesterday that the speech was nothing more than the stump speech he gives to the faithful and would find little resonance outside of his own supporters.  The Rasmussen poll bears this out.

Sarah Palin has already received a better reception than Joe Biden from voters.  Biden initially only received a 39% favorability rating when announced a week ago, and still hasn’t climbed above 50%.  In contrast, Palin has a 53% favorability on Day One:

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Sarah Palin made a good first impression. She was unknown nationally before being introduced as the GOP Vice-Presidential pick but is now viewed favorably by 53% of voters nationwide. Her counterpart, Joe Biden, is viewed favorably by 48%. While Palin has made a good first impression, the more significant numbers will come a week from now after the nation has a chance to learn more about her.

In the coming days, we’ll see more of Palin’s impact.  Given the media deluge on Palin yesterday and the way Obama’s speech disappeared from the commentariat in the wake of her selection, Obama has probably seen all the mileage he will from it.

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