John McCain has a tough act to follow tonight. Usually, the nominee's acceptance speech is the convention highlight ... like Barack Obama's stadium address last week. But today, the talk here in St. Paul is still about Sarah Palin's performance. The delegates loved it and they're anxious to hear more.

Now, tonight's setting will be a bit different. The stage was rebuilt to look more like a town hall meeting ... something very comfortable for McCain. He won't have to introduce himself as Palin did. But he has to do something she didn't: tell us where he'd take America. What would he do about the economy, about taxes, health care? And he needs to stress how he'd be different than Obama.

A new CBS News poll shows McCain and Obama are tied ... each with 42 percent. Obama's eight-point lead last weekend is gone. These numbers will no doubt keep changing as the convention hype dies down. We vote just two months from today.