John mccain's pick of sarah palin was a brilliant two-step. The Alaska governor jazzed the GOP's conservative base and set a pick for McCain to cast himself as a maverick reformer. McCain shot ahead in the polls. Intrade bettors knocked down Barack Obama from $0.62 to $0.46 in two weeks.rnBut the Palin surge is not enough to carry McCain into the White House. Events on Wall Street have swamped McCain's maverick message. The old soldier growls about greed but says little about growth and appears annoyed by it all.rnBarack Obama doesn't say much about Wall Street's meltdown, either, and zip about growth. He doesn't really have to. All Obama has to do is blame Republicans, blame Republicans and then blame Republicans. The response of some Republicans is to blame Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chair of the House Financial Services Committee, for putting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a collision course with market reality.
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