She's a hit

Huge crowds for McCain-Palin:

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska may have hijacked Senator John McCain's presidential campaign, but Mr. McCain is acting more and more like the happy captive. And why not? Probably the biggest crowd of his 2008 campaign turned out this morning at Van Dyke Park in northern Virginia, chanting "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!"
The Fairfax City fire marshal this afternoon estimated the crowd at 15,000, their numbers clearly evident as they covered the grassy hillsides and spilled down to a large outdoor stage.

Byron York says:

After the rally, McCain officials told me 23,000 people had been there. Even if that estimate was a little high, it was still McCain's biggest rally ever -- and that, at mid-morning, on a weekday.

And MSNBC says:

The McCain campaign is "very seriously considering" having McCain and Palin campaign together more often than not in the next two months, a senior campaign aide said, adding it could be the most a presidential and vice presidential candidate campaign in tandem in recent history.

The big crowd in Fairfax is good news, since Obama has put on a major effort to turn Virginia into a swing state.

UPDATE: Philip Klein's report from Fairfax:

All election season I've been saying if you want to find parking, go to a Republican campaign event. That's because ever since Iowa, the crowd sizes at Republican candidate rallies have paled in comparison to what the Democrats draw. But that was in the pre-Palin era. Now everything has changed, and suddenly Obama-like crowds are following Republicans. . . .
It's amazing how much Palin has become the focus of these McCain events. The most popular chant was "SA-RAH!" "SAR-AH!" "SAR-AH!" I saw one man with a "Sarah! Will you marry me?" sign, another that read "Read my lipstick: Baseball and Soccer Mom for McCain-Palin" and another that read "She's Our Girl."

We can now separate Republican politics into two eras: B.P. (Before Palin) and A.P. (After Palin).