John McCain will tell Sarah Palin to keep her mouth closed soon, if the 24 hours of fundraising after her speech is any indication.

37 Million people watched Sarah Palin last night, at least according to James Hibberd’s blog, and I’m betting a whole bunch of those viewers were Democrats. Oh, I intended to watch, but Rudy as the lead-in turned me off. All I read today says that Sarah Palin tried to do a number on Barack Obama, and that she crossed the line many times by distorting facts. Ho Hum. That ain’t news. We know how the Republicans at the convention reacted to Sarah Palin. They adore her, especially the evangelicals. That makes sense, since her speech was aimed at them. But what about the rest of those 37 million viewers who were not evangelicals, were not the base she was clearly appealing to?

Well, those folks who are not the radical right wing base of the Republican Party also reacted strongly to the Palin speech and its harsh attacks against Barack Obama. 130,000 of them decided to send a check to Obama, and those checks totaled $10,000,000. From the AP wire:

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign said it raised $10 million Thursday following the Republican National Convention speech by rival John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Palin’s address, heavily laced with digs at Obama, prompted an outpouring of donations from more than 130,000 donors.

“We’re up over the previous record and the number is still climbing the more Palin’s attacks are covered on cable and network news,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

The Republican National Committee announced earlier Thursday, at mid-afternoon, that it had raised well in excess of $1 million since Palin’s speech. Republicans expect Palin to mobilize their donors. But the Obama camp promptly used the speech as a fundraising hook, sending an overnight e-mail to supporters to contribute.

Here’s another quote by Burton from Politico’s Ben Smith:

Obama spokesman Bill Burton says, “Sarah Palin’s attacks have rallied our supporters in ways we never expected. And we fully expect John McCain’s attacks tonight to help us make our grass-roots organization even stronger.”

If Palin can raise that much money for Obama after her speech, what’s the odds on McCain beating her record? I’ll say Obama raises another $10 million in the 24 hours after McCain’s speech. Palin may have excited the Republican base with her “red meat” attacks for the red staters, but the GOP base is not opening their wallets like th eDemocrats are. I’m thinking the voters really passionate about this autumn are on the blue side of the political spectrum.