That's no Onion headline. Uh-oh, says Steve Young.

August 31, 2008 – Hollywood (YoungOnPolitics / apj.us) – Obama supporters might want to put your “Palin is McCain’s last coffin nail” celebration on hold.  Liberal/progressive/Democratic-leaning blogs had exploded with glee, hailing John McCain’s choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice President to be the worst political move since Michael Dukakis decided that driving a tank looked presidential and that she would more likely replace Tina Fey on 30 Rock than Dick Cheney at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Arianna Huffington called the move ”clearly a Hail Mary pass,” suggesting “Maybe an anxious nation can offer John McCain a do-over.” Jewish Journal editor, Rob Eshman, advanced the thought that her support for Pat Buchanan’s Presidential run could alienate Jewish voters and “cause ‘Israel First’ Jews, who seemed to be pretty much done with Obama, to take a second look.” Even noted blogger and incessant, self-promoting author/satirist/TV writer/columnist, Steve Young, wrote facetiously of the seeming attempt to attract the female vote, “I can just see the deluge of anti-science, anti-women right to choose, anti-gay, anti-environmental Hillary supporters lining up for this one.”

Notwithstanding the Democrat’s delight, the majority of Americans aren’t making plans for the Obama inauguration. In fact, it seems the immediate reaction to the Palin pick has more Americans believing Palin is ready to be president than not.

That’s not an Onion headline, folks. Not even FreeRepublic.com. That was Saturday’s Gallop Poll.

Asked if from what they know about Sarah Palin, do they believe she is “qualified to serve as president it if becomes necessary,” 39% of Americans said yes, while 33%, said no.

While the numbers are highly partisan - 63% of Republicans say Palin is qualified - the more amazing figures offer a snapshot that shows more Independents saying she is qualified than not - 41% to 31% - and as much as 47% of Democrats either think she is qualified or have yet to draw a conclusion.

Certainly, it is far too early to say whether the selection of Palin will help, hinder or do neither for McCain’s election chances.  But what you can figure on right now is that while you can always count on the American people, you can’t truly do so until November 4.

Steve Young is Webmaster of Steve Young on Politics, author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" and his "All the News That's Fit to Spoof" appears on the LA Daily News Op-Ed page every Sunday… to the left of Bill O'Reilly's column… really!