Sarah Palin

"Sources" are now saying that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be McCain's running mate. I think it's going to be announced in a few minutes. Assuming this is true, I have to give the McCain campaign a lot of credit for keeping this secret so long. In recent weeks, the only names that the news media have seriously discussed are Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Joe Lieberman, Tom Ridge, Bobby Jindal, and one or two others whose names escape me but who are not Sarah Palin.

The Palin pick will probably scare a lot of democrats, mainly because it has the potential to steal their "historic ticket" thunder. Prediction: we will see Geraldine Ferraro dragged out in the coming days or weeks, to subtly remind us, "hey everybody, democrats nominated a woman for the vice presidency first. So, yeah."

This seems like a rather shallow attempt by McCain to appeal to the 'Hillary Democrats' - shallow in the sense that the similarities between the two are only gender-deep. Clinton's appeal with these people was not due to their infatuation with the idea of a female president. It was more because of their close affinity for her as a person, as someone whom they had been familiar with for sixteen years and associated closely with pleasant memories of the perceived prosperity of the nineties. Clinton's supporters didn't want to gamble on a new face when they had such a qualified and familiar candidate already at their disposal.