Sarah Palin

Wow.

Personally, I thought that was an amazing pick by McCain. From an issues standpoint, she is an extremely strong conservative. They both have significant distaste for pork-barrel spending, with Palin leading the charge in Alaska against her own party members. That's honesty right there.

From a political standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Disgruntled Clinton voters and other undecided women (Of all undecided voters, women count for 55% of them) will have to take a look at the suddenly progressively-looking party. Palin's strong conservative background will reassure conservatives who were wary of McCain's moderate stances on many issues, and should draw voters from Barr back to McCain. She seemingly matches up very well against Obama, and has experience at the executive level, something Obama and his running mate (Biden) lack.

Oh, and she's pretty. Yeah, I know that's shallow. But does anything think that Belinda Stronach would've gotten elected under both the Liberal and Conservative Parties in Canada for an MP spot if she wasn't pretty either? It's sad, but looks do play an important part in politics.

So yes, so far, all signs point to a thumbs up for me. Most of the people criticizing the decision are strong Obama supporters anyway. The references to Clinton and Ferraro in her acceptance speech were a bit cheesy and obvious draw at the disgruntled supporters, but hey, if it works, it works.

Personally, I think whichever party wins this year gets to take over a nosediving economy, gets blamed for when it inevitably struggles, and will lose the election in 2012.