Can we be over Palin now...?

[regnaD kciN]

Folks, it's over. Her moment in the sun, that is. She's being whisked back to Alaska, to be kept out of sight until they come up with another pre-scripted speech for her to deliver.

She'll make a few appearances on the campaign trail, deliver a few soundbites that'll make the evening news. But it's over. She'll never again be the "overnight sensation" she was yesterday. Strictly speaking, Palin-mania is "so 9/3."

The G.O.P. will get a convention bounce, like every convention has before and every convention will in the future. Some people will freak out about this (like the Chicken Littles on MyDD who proclaimed that, if McCain takes a three- to four-point lead in the tracking polls in the next few days, "it's over" and we've lost the election). The bounce will subside, just like every convention bounce has before. By the end of the day (i.e. mid-to-late September) the polls will likely be right around where they were before either convention began.

In the meantime, we have a campaign to run. Against John McCain. Not against a surrogate in high-heels, even if she does know how to dress a field moose, or however that goes.

The race is against John McCain. A candidate who stands for the continuation of the Bush administration. A candidate who offers nothing new. A candidate who, according to polls, is viewed as "out of touch" with and not caring about the average American. A candidate of a party whose president has a 28% approval rating.

And that race begins now.