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More revelations surrounding Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, continued to emerge on Tuesday - none of them all that good. Yet somehow, some way, John McCain continues to gain ground in his race for the White House.
Political prediction markets, which tend to become even more accurate as Election Day approaches, have John McCain odds slashed by .10 points - down from +165 to +155 at Bookmaker.com since the start of the weekend. Just two weeks ago, that online betting firm accepted a $20,000 bet on McCain (and for the record, that bet wasn't placed by his wife Cindy).
Political betting was expected to gain steam Tuesday following a three day holiday weekend in the US.
Already there are indications that Senator Barack Obama was starting to gain some substantial ground at other political prediction markets such as Intrade.com, which had him up a whole 1.3 percentage mark from 60 percent Sunday evening.
National polls also show Obama widening his lead.
According to a poll conducted by USA Today after the Democratic National Convention held in Denver, Colorado, in late August, the Illinois Senator led McCain by 7 percentage points among registered voters, at 50 percent to 43 percent.
A previous poll taken by the newspaper on Aug. 21 to 23 showed that Obama only had 4-point lead.
Another poll released by the CBS Monday gave Obama 9-point lead over the Arizona Senator, who is to officially receive his nomination at the ongoing Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota from Sept. 1 to 4.
The CBS poll conducted between Aug. 29 and 31 also found that 71 percent of those surveyed said they were watching Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night in the INVESCO stadium where about 84,000 people were at present.
The poll also showed that 37 percent of independent voters favored Obama, while 43 percent supported McCain, who used to have 12-point lead among the group.
Still, controversies surrounding McCain's VP pick haven't eroded any ground he has gained in recent months the way some media outlets would have expected. A pregnant 17 year old daughter whose boyfriend describes himself as a "f***ing Redneck", rumors that Palin pressured a man to fire her ex-brother-in-law trooper and questions over her lack of experience in public office have done little to harm McCain's chances...at least not yet.
The mainstream media - even a few conservative outlets - continue to descend upon Sarah Palin like vultures.
Tuesday's news included reports that her husband was once arrested for a DUI - more than 20 years ago.
Questions about Palin's judgment have been among the most talked about topics on the Gambling911.com website, which is now monitoring Presidential betting odds on a daily basis leading up to November's election. Specifically, readers have questioned how Palin could fly nearly 9 hours while 8 months pregnant after her water broke.
Many readers questioned how this was even possible.
"She flew to the conference in Austin when he was (allegedly) at 8 months. While she was there, her water (allegedly) broke, and she flew for 9 hours, 15 minutes back to Anchorage, with a plane change in Seattle -- without telling anyone, because the airline never would have let her board -- and (allegedly) gave birth to a 6 pound, 2 ounce preemie. Three days later, this 44-year-old woman was back at work, none the worse for the wear. I'm not believing it. I'd like to see the birth certificate."
In many ways, Palin has become a bigger celebrity than both Barack Obama and John McCain combined. At the very least, she's the hot topic of the week - and it hasn't even been a full week since McCain announced her as his running mate. Somehow it seems a whole lot longer.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
