SARAH

Posted at 7:18 p.m. ET

The McCain/Palin ticket has run into some rough waters, provided primarily by Wall Street.  We'll await today's trackers, but don't be shocked if they all show Obama in the lead.  Given the financial crisis, and the beating that Sarah Palin has taken from the boisterous brotherhood of beltway bores, it won't be surprising.  McCain has now got to fight back.

I watched Sarah Palin last night as she was interviewed by Sean Hannity.  Now, it was a soft interview.  Hannity is a conservative, and he wasn't out to trip her.  But still, I was amazed at how much better she was, how much more relaxed she was, than last week, when confronting the professorial Charlie Gibson.  Palin is a quick study.  She'll be debating Joe Biden in a few weeks, and all she has to do is hold her own.  Unless some in-the-tank moderator tries to mess her up, she might well exceed expectations by quite a bit.

A little of the Sarah magic is gone because so much attention has shifted to the economic mess, and because the press assault is having its impact.  But I think she can get the spotlight back.  It should be a priority of the McCain campaign because she's a major draw, and a great political asset.  The Los Angeles Times reports that she's become a hot item on the fundraising circuit as well:

While the political and news world was focused on the glitzy Hollywood haul of money by the Obama campaign's Brinks trucks Tuesday night, it turns out lesser-light Sarah Palin was gathering in a good deal more than a million bucks at three separate fundraisers back in Ohio.

She did a country club event in Canton that raked in more than $1 million by itself Monday night, a Dayton breakfast and a $2,500-per-plate luncheon in Cincinnati.

Once totaled, the 18-hour sum will exceed the entire $1.35 million Palin spent on her successful insurgent gubernatorial general election campaign in Alaska two years ago.

And...

"What we've seen over the past 17 days or so is nothing short of amazing when it comes to grass-roots response," said Kevin DeWine, deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Ohio, a must-win state for GOP White House hopes since 1916.

Palin's fresh-faced, down-to-earth appeal has even spread to Western states. Organizers of a Sept. 24 fundraiser in Wyoming featuring Palin report ticket sales to people from as far away as Idaho and Montana.

"We're really talking about a regional type of excitement," Maggie Scarlett, McCain's Wyoming co-finance chair, told Erika Bolstad of the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin will be in New York this coming week.  Don't be surprised if she shows up on "Saturday Night Live."

September 18, 2008.