John McCain selects Sarah Palin as his VP candidate

Senator John McCain's pick of Alaska governor Sarah Palin is an interesting choice. As has been said elsewhere, her relative inexperience undermines Republican attacks on Senator Barack Obama on this same issue.

At the same time, this move by the McCain campaign is enormously practical. They are trying to peel off as many Hillary supporters from the Democrats as possible, as well as minimize McCain's old-man factor with the fresh and quite attractive face of Gov. Palin. In addition to being so easy on the eyes, she is reputed to have backed up her common sense with political assertions; for example there was the private jet she auctioned on eBay when former Alaskan governor Frank Murkowski forced the state to purchase it for him over the protest of the Alaska state legislature. I've also seen her speak on C-SPAN, most recently at a board of governors' meeting with oil industry executives. She seems serious and she has a compelling personal presence.

Also interesting is what this reveals about the Republican calculus this year. They have concluded that American voters are not all that interested in qualifications or a traditional resume, and they are threatened. Whereas in past elections the opposite would have been overwhelmingly true, this time many Americans will vote for Obama specifically because he is black (the pre-civil rights "one drop of blood" idea so common within most any homogeneous ethnic group). Similarly, the McCain campaign has determined that enough Hillary supporters were backing her simply because she's a woman, and ultimately not for enough of anything beyond gender pride.

Thus, McCain's move makes sense. Barack Obama is likely to win, but it is also likely to be an extremely close contest. If the McCain campaign can attract even a small fraction of the 18 million Hillary supporters, it could be enough to close the gap and hand the win to the Republicans.

In terms of the general election, it will be amusing to see the Democrats' attempts to get voters riled up about urgent concerns over Ms. Palin's background and legislative record regarding issues specific to Alasksa, a far-off state that is truly out of signt and out of mind for the ordinary person who is not likely to care about the urgent crisis facing Alaska's eco-tourism market.