Dan Quayle was far more unqualified than Palin and yet Bush 1 still won the election in 1988.
Palin is the best thing McCain has going for his campaign. She generates big crowds and excitement.
And lest one forget how badly the current Bush stumbled in answering basic questions in interviews back in 2000 and yet still won ...
To digress a bit, while one can debate the 2000 election results ... Bush won again in 2004 despite his apparant lack of knowledge about many things and mishandling of the war.
Bottom line is Americans like "new" ... Palin is "new" ... plus she is relatively young and hot!
If anyone were to drop out, it would be Biden or, as crazy as it sounds, McCain for health reasons...
And there is another possibility - it's way out there, but sadly plausable ... if something very bad happened to Obama, then likely Hillery Clinton would be nominated with Biden as her running mate.
With all that said, most likely McCain, with help from Bush and friends, will pull an October surprise - think terror alerts, war mongering, etc ... and edge out Obama in some key states to win just like Bush did twice.
Ron