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Conventional WisdomEmily Bazelon and Christopher Beam field questions about Obama's acceptance speech and McCain's veep choice.

Updated Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, at 6:39 PM ET

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New York, NY: I think the main focus of Obama/Biden has to be on her uber conservative and pro-life stance. That will hopefully turn the PUMAs off who weren't already by an obvious play for the "woman vote."

Emily Bazelon: Yes there is this odd disconnect in the stance of the Hillary supporter who says she is voting for McCain even though she is ardently pro-choice on abortion. That's the position of the Hillary delegate who made the McCain ad (quite an effective ad, I'd say). It's a look back at McCain, not a look at what he's saying presently—or, I'd argue, likely to do in the future. What matters are his judicial appointments, and he says now that he wants more judges like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito. They are jurists who are far more likely to curtail or overturn Roe v. Wade than any justice Obama would appoint. Sure, I suppose it's possible that McCain could back away from that promise. I don't think that ending the legal right to abortion is what gets him up in the morning. But he needs the abortion-opposing faction of his party to govern as well as win the election, and they are very good at making it clear that judges are what they care about, and demand.

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Rockville, Md.: According to some left-leaning blogs, PUMAs are not appreciable enough in number to pose a serious threat to Obama. They cite a PUMA convention in DC that had to be downsized because not enough people showed and report that PUMA gatherings at the DNC were similarly small in number.

If true, you wouldn't know this from the MSM (especially the cable news channels), and the only explanation is that they've sought out these voters to create a conflict-filled narrative.

How prevalent were the PUMAs at the DNC? Did you have to dig to find one or were they everywhere like the MSM says?

McCain's pick for VP seems to think he believes the MSM.

Christopher Beam: The members of PUMA—and the number of people who show up to their rallies—aren't particularly numerous. But McCain is banking that they're representative of a larger, silent minority, which I think is accurate. Not every Hillary fan is going to say, "In November, I'm voting present." But enough have "lingering questions" about Obama—read: a gut aversion—that McCain can probably skim off a few votes, potentially in swing states.

For sure, the media has played up their influence. Conventions are designed to be story-less, and the temptation to exaggerate Clinton/Obama tensions was too much. Plus, the poll numbers showing Clinton voters still hesitant to vote for Obama (what is it now, 25 percent?) justify the coverage. But even the reporters here in Denver agree the PUMA crowd is just a vocal sliver.

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Concord, N.H.: Well, now that McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as VP candidate has sucked all of the oxygen out of the Internets, how do you think McCain's choice will play out over the next 2 months?

I would imagine Palin would get soundly defeated by Biden in the VP debate, but there are sinkholes everywhere he could fall into. I fear that any criticism launched at Palin's relatively thin resume compared to Biden's depth of knowledge will gleefully be painted by the Republicans as sexism. He also has a tendency to be a bit...paternalistic...which could lead to sounding condescending.

McCain pretty much just doubled down and went all in. I thought the primaries were interesting—this is going to be a fascinating couple of months.

Emily Bazelon: Yes Biden will have to be very careful to come off as authoritative rather than condescending. But to give him credit, he was an effective debater in the Democratic contest, before he dropped out—one of the most effective, I think. And he never said anything that came off as sexist toward Hillary. Palin is a different opponent, since she doesn't have Hillary's stature and hasn't been around the Washington block. But Biden's handling of himself is still a good sign.

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Boston: Is McCain so attention-starved that he resorted to a gimmick to take the day's news coverage over Obama?

Christopher Beam: Not sure if you're referring to McCain's "congrats!" ad last night or the Palin pick today. But either way, I think they're both fair game in a tough, hard-knock election. The ad was respectful—if secretly undermining—and the veep pick is just good strategy, timing-wise. If you think this is gimmicky, wait till you see what the Dems have in store for St. Paul ...

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Portland: With McCain picking Palin it would appear that Obama has nothing to fear from Hillary. If Clinton hated the thought of Obama picking Sebelius she must really be livid about a pretty young thing trying to steal her supporters. Do you agree with me that Hillary will be extremely motivated now to see that Obama gets elected?

Emily Bazelon: I suppose Hillary might see the Palin choice as pandering. But she might just as easily be cheered that McCain picked a woman. Whatever his reasons, it's another gender barrier broken. And Hillary is wise enough to know that's a het benefit for women, even if—or because—it's coming on the other side of the aisle.

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Columbia, Md.: I'm neither a Hillary supporter nor a woman, but I think that you miss the point in your rather snide response to a previous poster. The reason why there is so much passion among her supporters is not merely because she is a woman, but rather because she is perceived to be a highly qualified candidate who deserves the nomination (better than the supposedly less qualified Obama). I don't see these voters lining up behind Palin, who seems intelligent, but let's face it, is not Hillary Clinton.

Emily Bazelon: Was I snide? Oh dear. Yes, there was certainly a strong case for Hillary on the basis of her experience. I don't question any of her supporters—choosing her, in the primaries, was entirely rationale. I'm talking about NOW framing the Obama v. McCain choice in terms of gender, ie, because I'm angry with Obama, and don't think he deserved to be the nominee, I'm going to vote for McCain, never mind the policy implications. As Hillary said in her speech, to support her was to care about a laundry list of Democratic policy proposal and emphases. A list that John McCain simply doesn't espouse.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Chris and Emily—I'm curious to know your take on how the Obama campaign is going to approach McCain's VP pick. There were mild snickers about Palin's relative inexperience when names were floating around before. But, as you're well aware, that's the same criticism leveraged against Obama. So what do you think they're going to say about her?

Thanks!