There can be only one- Bump that is

McCain has gone to the far right in an election that relies on centrists voters. Although, people are forgetting McCain never really had a win-win pick for vice president in the first place. All of his choices were too far right for the left (Huckabee, Romney) or too far left for the right (Lieberman). Ultimately, he went right because he needs the money and the saber rattling to be competitive and it appears to be paying off a little. However, McCain will still be limited by federal funds soon, so the financial impact won't help long. Plus, given that Obama has long been out-fundraising McCain by 2 to 1, he will probably never realistically level the money generating playing field, but at least something is better than nothing.

The media and others are certainly attacking Palin because they don't know her. She is a pick that was not on the main radar screen and therefore the media feels we must know everything about her; good and mostly bad. The media and world was introduced to her the Friday before Labor Day weekend; when most people (including big name anchors) are off work. The Palin pick, along with Gustav has clearly carried over into the convention. When Biden was picked, there was no real controversy because everybody knew him, anticipated the pick by small hints here and there from the Obama camp, and the democrats subsequently had a successful, distraction free convention.

Past trends don't look good for McCain. Looking at the 2004 presidential race, Kerry took and maintained a marginal lead over Bush after his convention, but this was virtually shot down after the republican convention in late August. One problem for Kerry was the conventions being so far apart with the republicans convening last; giving them plenty of time to counter-act the attacks and progress made by Kerry months before. In September, immediately after the '04 RNC, Bush took a huge lead and maintained it. The Bush convention went well and covered all the bases. This time around, the conventions are right on top of each other, so there can be only one bump and it will go to the party with the most successful convention. The republicans have barely had enough time to roll out a VP pick in response to the Dems VP pick (1 week); let alone introduce her, clear the dirt and controversy away, and let people get to know her. That's a big order for Palin's first significant speech ever. On top of that, McCain still has to say exactly what he will do for the country; what his plan is, and distance himself from Bush, etc. By the way, did you know he was a POW? McCain doesn't have much time to do all this (his convention is more than half way over and we are still hearing Palin controversy and there are 3 more hurricanes coming). If the organization of his campaign and the convention so far are any indications, he won't be able to pull it off and the democrats will increase or maintain their ~8 point lead (which includes polls that overlap with the Palin announcement).

Once something sticks (or doesn't stick...like a clear message) to your campaign in September, you don't really have the time or flexibility to change voter's opinions.