McCain Campaign is a smoke-screen

Whatever advantage Barack Obama had over John McCain before the Republican National Convention has vanished. With the announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate, and a rousing speech at the RNC, Senator John McCain has pulled ahead to tie Obama in the latest polls from Gallup.com.

The question is, how? With the majority of their convention spent down talking Obama and the current campaign focused mostly on smearing Obama, how can it possibly be that the Republicans are doing so well in the polls? I ask this not as a rhetorical question but as a serious one.

John McCain's own campaign manager has admitted that this election is not about the issues, and somehow the American people buy into this! As if this (or any) election should be about anything else!

With the economy in shambles, what could POSSIBLY be more important than what our future president will do to help Americans struggling to survive? Apparently John McCain thinks that hiding behind a smokescreen created by publicity of Palin and half-truths about Obama will help him avoid talking about the issues that ARE important. It is as if the Republicans are doing everything they possibly can to draw attention away from the fact that they have no plans at all. It is as if they are saying to the American people "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

So then why is it working? Why are so many people blinded by irrelevant (and often untrue) accusations? Why does it seem to me that McCain gains more numbers in the polls by talking about Obama's lack of experience than by talking about the issues which matter to Americans? Perhaps I am unfairly bias, and perhaps I am misinformed or merely wrong. I am , after all, merely a high school senior. And yet if I am not, then I would like an answer to my question : Why are so many oblivious to the fact that the Republican ticket does NOT represent change? Why are so many, although it is right before their eyes, still focused on the smoke and mirrors rather than the man (and woman) behind the curtain?