Washington, Sept. 29: The marriage of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter, Bristol, to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé, Levi Johnston, before the November 4 election, is being seen in GOP circles as the tonic required to boost the McCain campaign’s flagging fortunes.

According to The Times, the McCain campaign expectations are growing.

“It would be fantastic. You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week,” the paper quoted an insider, as saying.

There is already some urgency to the wedding as Bristol, who is six months pregnant, may not want to walk down the aisle too close to her date of delivery.

She turns 18 on October 18, a respectable age for a bride — and the same age as Barack Obama’s pregnant mother when she married his Kenyan father.

The Democrat has already declared Bristol’s private life off-limits as far as his campaign is concerned.

The selection of Palin, 44, the moose-hunting governor of Alaska, as his running mate was one of McCain’s biggest gambles. It paid off handsomely at first, but she could benefit from a fresh injection of homespun authenticity, the hallmark of her style, provided by her daughter’s wedding after appearing out of depth away from her home state.

Palin has even been advised to quit the race for the sake of the party’s future.

The Republicans’ Palin “bounce” ended last week as concern for the plunging economy mounted.

Obama ended the week four points ahead of McCain on 48 percent to 44 percent in the RealClearPolitics poll of polls.

A Rasmussen survey showed that McCain’s lead among white women voters slipped to two points, as opposed to 14 points for George W Bush in 2004.

However, Palin has a remarkable ability to galvanise the evangelical voters and social conservatives who form the Republican base. The party boasted last week that it will probably surpass its fundraising goal of 100 million dollar for September and October.

McCain is expected to have a front-row seat at Bristol’s wedding and to benefit from the outpouring of goodwill that it could bring.

Johnston was greeted with a handshake and friendly slap on the back by McCain in St Paul, Minnesota, and treated as a member of the family during the Republican national convention when he appeared on stage after Palin’s speech. (ANI)