Originally Posted by Greco

If you consider all of the choices John McCain had as a running mate, each one brought as many negatives as positives to his campaign. That's how bad off the Republican brand is during this election cycle. He had to make a choice. The time for the decision was now, not later. His options were limited, so he took a gulp and named Sarah Palin.

As soon as the information was available to national media, political anchors were even asking on air, "How do you pronounce her name?" She's that unknown. She's also that inexperienced. No international credentials. No foreign affairs credentials. No economic credentials. No military credentials. But she is currently under investigation for ethics problems.

It's factual that she's a governor. But it's Alaska, a state with less population than many American cites. She is currently a "Commander in Chief", but it's the Alaska National Guard, which hardly faces a dangerous threat from a sneak Canadian invasion. She's barely a governor of a small state, only having about two years in office. Prior to that she was the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska which is about the size of Turley, Oklahoma. Think of the town in Northern Exposure. But she doesn't bring much harm to McCain's campaign, and she is a better public speaker than McCain.

There are several challenges for McCain with this selection. First, there aren't many remaining disgruntled Hillary supporters lurking about, certainly not enough to make one whit of difference in any state. She's totally unknown outside of Alaska and there's very little time remaining to sell her background to all of America. Because of McCain's very advanced age, it is a serious consideration who would take over the helm of our nation if something happened to him. It's actually scary to think about the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska having to face the international problems we now have.

Then there's the debates.

While she can give an acceptable public speech, in a debate she will have to answer questions. She'll be paired against one of the most knowledgeable and experienced individuals in America in military matters, foreign policy and issues impacting our economy. If you knew that was in your immediate path could you get up to full speed in only a few weeks to actually debate someone who's impeccable credentials were measured in decades of service?

While Sarah Palin doesn't bring immediate problems with her to initially distract from McCain's campaign, her problems will surface as she's actually judged against the VP candidate from the other side. McCain needed to do something. He needed to find a running mate that would be different from the ones on his short list. He found one. He found a novelty act. Not hard on the eyes, but lightweight in what to do, but for the first time a Republican candidate has picked a woman. That's about the sum of the positives.