CROWDS

Posted at 8:05 a.m. ET

So far, the crowds for McSarah have been great.  The two were in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday, and tickets are already gone for their rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado, this afternoon.  Some might charge that they're only attracting the base of the GOP.  I doubt that, and the story rebuts the charge, but attracting the base is also critical this year.  If the base is fired up, registered voters become likely voters, and that's what we need. 

The Politico reports:

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich.—John McCain may have swapped one enthusiasm gap for another.

As he touched down in suburbs outside of Milwaukee and Detroit, the just crowned Republican nominee found himself first on the newly-fashioned signs proclaiming the unlikely GOP ticket but seemingly second in the hearts of the thousands who thronged rallies to catch their first glimpse in person of Sarah Palin.

McCain drew loud applause, first at a morning appearance in the downtown of a quaint, Republican-leaning Wisconsin village and then at a more-boisterous amphitheater rally here in Michigan’s working-class Macomb County.

Yet it was Palin who many, especially women, in both crowds were thrilled to see up close just days after she exploded onto the national political scene.

Clutching signs with messages such as “Girl Power” and “Sarah Is My American Idol,” moms and their daughters lined the barricades just outside The Chocolate Shop in Cedarburg, Wisconsin that served as the backdrop for the rally.

Heaven?  Are we in Heaven?

But Palin, with her out-of-nowhere debut, compelling personal story and first-rate convention speech, has injected new life into the GOP and piqued the curiosity of voters who are only mildly interested in politics.

Mary Beth Brennan of Linden, Michigan caught some of Palin’s speech Wednesday, was impressed and let a political junkie friend drag her here to Freedom Theater to see the GOP ticket Friday night, where many women were sporting just-made “Go Sarah Go” buttons on their shirts.

I want my button.

On the rope line following both events, she received as much attention as McCain, with many women reaching out for handshakes and holding up digital cameras. Some clutched copies of this week’s Newsweek in hopes of adding an autograph to the cover of the new Republican duo.

In Wisconsin, after one side of the podium received attention from McCain, they quickly began a “Sarah” chant in hopes of attracting his number two. They had to wait as she and McCain first dashed into the ice cream shop, where Palin ordered, naturally, Moose Tracks.

This is key:

But for the many who showed up to see the newly-minted Republican team, it wasn’t any issue or political posture that had brought them out.

It was just a women that they saw a lot of themselves in. Or, as one homemade sign put it, “Pro-Life Hockey Moms 4 Palin.”

That's the heart of her appeal.  If used right, it can add enough to bring victory closer.

September 6, 2008.