Actually what I thought would be a wise counterpunch would be that Gov, from Alaska. From what I know about her she is a tough cookie, knock out looks, great family gal, with a shining personality, something McCain sorely lacks.
Sarah Palin is potentially a future star in the Repub ranks, but she makes Obama's resume look long and detailed by comparison. She's been Governor less than two years, and prior to that her only elective office was as mayor of a small bedroom town 40 miles north of Anchorage. She's also just recently mishandled the dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner in a clumsy way, getting it mixed up with personal family business of her own.
She also brings McCain absolutely nothing from a strategic standpoint, and a debate with Joe Biden would not be pretty.
She is smart, articulate and has lots of potential. Worth watching for the future, possibly for a Senate run a few years down the road.
Oh, and then there's a real strategic matter. Palin's Lt. Governor is a guy named Sean Parnell, who is running against Congressman-for-Life Don Young in the Republican Primary, which was held Tuesday. That race remains up in the air, Young leading Parnell by 152 votes with some 8,000 questioned and absentee ballots still to be counted. The smart money suggests that Parnell should do better than young in the absentee balloting, for demographic reasons.
McCain hates Don Young (and his Senate cohort Ted Stevens) passionately, for a lot of long-term reasons involving pork-barrel politics, earmarks, etc. He'd like nothing more than to see Young out of office. But if he were to choose Palin, and win the election, Parnell would then succeed to the governorship, leaving that Congressional Seat in Young's hands again.
Provided, that is, Young could beat a well-thought-of young Democrat named Ethan Berkowitz, who currently leads Young in the polls; Parnell vs. Berkowitz is a much closer race in the polls.
caw
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