One blanches to think of  the lacerations the conservative chatterers would be inflicting on Gov. Palin if she were a Democrat and been offered up by that party as its VP candidate. The high dudgeon with which they've have reacted to the less-than-enthusiastic reception Gov. Palin's selection has gotten, and their inexplicably vigorous and angry defense of that selection, is really laughable.  The fullness of the praise and admiration they've expressed for her would be a bit over the top for anyone, but for a person they'd never heard of until last week and whose resume is as thin as hers is, it's hard to explain. What all this says, I guess, is that you could nominate Daffy Duck, and the True Believers - of either party - would bow at his altar. If these people said anything a month ago about a pressing need for Sarah Palin's governmental expertise and services at the national level, it seems to have escaped everyone's notice.

To risk stating the obvious, Sen. McCain didn't pick Gov. Palin because he thought she would make a good vice president or a good president.  He picked her because he thought it would help him win the election, and he didn't hesitate to put her the proverbial heartbeataway.  Imagine this person, most recently the mayor of a town not quite as big as Grinders Switch, in debates about foreign policy - or anything else, for that matter -- with Sen. Biden; or, should she become president, in negotiations/confrontations with predatory lobbyists, special interest groups, members of congress, and various players on the world stage like, say, Vladimir Putin and the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Two words: Road Kill. So this move is not about what's right for the country, but about what's right for John McCain. Conservative pundits are livid about what they see as character assassination of Gov. Palin by "the media," but when it comes to incredible cynicism in the service of naked ambition on the part of Sen. McCain in putting her on the ticket...well, not so much.

Ironically, the calculation, cold as it is, that this will drive votes to the Republican ticket is remarkably clueless, and demonstrates the rather bizarre conception McCain and his team seem to have regarding actual voters out here in flyover territory.  At the very least, the idea that this will bring women voters over to their side speaks loudly and clearly about their low opinion of women voters.  And puffery regarding Gov. Palin's qualifications - for example, that she's strong on national defense because as governor she's head of the Alaska National Guard, or that Alaska is pretty close to Russia, so, er, what? - has the potential for making the campaign not merely unsuccessful, but a laughing stock.  As for the idea that a straight-shootin' good ol' boy or girl who isn't steeped in Washington politics is just the ticket for handling the complexities of government, that seems to be the favorite fantasy of those for whom class resentment is a way of life.