Prometheus 6

I believe the real reason McCain picked Palin is that no one else would do it. McCain is the Republican nominee for the same reason Dole was picked to run against Clinton: seniority in a year when no one believed they had a chance in hell of winning anyway.

I remember the trouble Dole had finding a veep. I remember who was picked. Do you?

Exactly.

McCain Chooses Palin as Running Mate
By MICHAEL COOPER and ELISABETH BUMILLER

DAYTON, Ohio — Senator John McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate on Friday, shaking up the political world with a surprise pick at a time when his campaign has been trying to attract women, especially disaffected supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In choosing Ms. Palin — a 44-year-old conservative Christian and self-described “hockey mom” who has been governor for less than two years — the McCain campaign reached far outside the Beltway in an election where the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, is running on a platform of change.

The pick, confirmed by Republicans familiar with the decision, amounted to a roll of the dice, a gamble that an infusion of new leadership — and the novelty of the Republican party’s first female candidate for vice president — would more than compensate for the risk that Ms. Palin could undercut one of the McCain campaign’s central arguments, their claim that Mr. Obama is too inexperienced to be president.