Veepstakes (I Hate That Word)

When I heard that John McCain selected Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as his running mate, my first thought was - "Who?" My second thought was - "Wow, a politician who's easy on the eyes!" I'm not sure what my third thought was, but I think it was something along the lines of what Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own after he knocked down Stillwell with a baseball mitt - "We're gonna win!"

I thought it was interesting that Obama has been talking about how he is going to offer a change from the same old Washington politics - and so he picks fusty old Joe Biden, who has been in the Senate for 35 years. And McCain, after criticizing Obama's lack of experience, goes out and picks Sarah Palin, who the average American had never heard of before last Friday.

I was voting for McCain all along, but my vote was based mostly on the fact that he's not Obama or Hillary and also because he did a fine job hosting Saturday Night Live about 5 years ago. And of course, you can't go wrong with the POW thing. But picking Sarah Palin - that gave his whole campaign a jolt of energy. Something that wouldn't have happened if he had picked Joe Lieberman or Mitt Romney (unless you're Mormon) or a reanimated Jimmy Carter zombie.

What a biography she has - born in Idaho, raised in Alaska, won a state basketball championship, Miss Alaska runner-up, graduate of the University of Idaho (The Vandals), worked as a sports anchor, husband is one-quarter eskimo, was mayor of Wasilla (pop. < 10,000) just six years ago, kicked corrupt political butt in Alaska, has something like an 80 percent approval rating as governor, mother of five, had a baby at age 44 while in office, the baby has Down Syndrome. Fascinating stuff.

All other things being equal, I'm always going to vote for the POW from Arizona and the Lady Governor from Alaska over the Harvard guy and his crusty old East Coast running mate.