Democratic pollster Paul Maslin promoted Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama at a luncheon Thursday, but also suggested the possibility of a future White House run for Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin..

“I think we’re about to have one of the most interesting periods in American policies in recent years … but it won’t be in the next 19 days; it will be the period directly after,” said Maslin.

Maslin predicts Obama will defeat Republican presidential nominee John McCain by about 51 percent to 48 percent, with the remaining one percent of votes being third-party candidates. However, Maslin said the victory margin may even be in the double digits, as Obama has been winning in the polls thus far.

Maslin discussed the Wisconsin state Legislature and congressional elections, saying, “It’s going to be a significant Democratic victory. It will be accompanied by a significant Democratic victory for Congress … and I think the state Assembly here in Wisconsin will change hands.”

Maslin dismissed McCain’s chances in the election saying at this point, McCain can only try to make the gap between him and Obama a little smaller. He did, surprisingly, have kind words to say about Palin.

“[Palin] is going to be able to raise so much money; if any of these people think that they’re going to beat her for the nomination in 2012, they are kidding,” said Maslin. “She is really going to be a force in that party.”

UW political science professor Charles Franklin said it is too early to predict Palin’s importance to the Republican Party because she needs to prove she has staying power. He added she has certainly established herself among the core of the Republican Party, but if they lose big in this election, she will have to overcome that.

Franklin does not count McCain out completely, but says he will need to get back key states like Florida and Ohio and about five more battleground states in order to get the necessary 270 electoral votes to win.

“The odds are very heavily against Sen. McCain, but if you want to plot out a path that leads to one of the great comebacks in electoral history, these are the states that it leads through,” Franklin said.

Kirsten Kukowski, communications director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said, “McCain is not out.” She stated Thursday’s Gallup Poll had McCain down by only 2 points nationally, and since state polls generally follow the national, Wisconsin will soon mirror that difference. The cited Gallup poll is of likely voters; In Gallup’s poll of registered voters, Obama has a six point lead.

Kukowski did agree that Palin is very important to the Republican Party.

“We saw it right after the Republican National Convention,” Kukowski said. “People love Gov. Palin, and there is no doubt about it that she is going to be a leader of our party in the future.”