Sarah Palin, an intriguing pick for McCain

Republican Sen. John McCain grabbed the spotlight from the Democrats with his surprising, fresh, albeit risky pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin is an intriguing selection with one or two very important exceptions.

As governor for less than two years and before that mayor of a very small town, she's inexperienced enough to give fits to people worried about McCain's health and longevity. McCain turned 72 the day he announced her selection.

If something happens to him, she does not have time to grasp all the facets of the job, especially in the area of foreign policy.

The other part of freshness is that we are all just getting to know her. Her office also is involved in an investigation about the firing of a state public safety commissioner who refused to fire a trooper involved in divorce proceedings with Palin's sister.

In a small boon to Democrats, selecting Palin mutes future Republican attacks on Sen. Barack Obama's inexperience. When the Republican National Convention opens, all that talk about Obama's relatively few years in the Illinois Senate and U.S. Senate will melt into the excitement of McCain's selection of a female veep. Palin gives McCain undeniable buzz of having a woman on board.

There are many who still think this election will be decided by white, working-class women who are uncomfortable with Obama, and who are still angry about Hillary Clinton's loss to him.

Palin surely attracts some of these voters, but not those who care about abortion choice. She is as conservative as McCain on this issue.

The most compelling part of her selection is that she enhances McCain's reputation as a maverick because she comes from as far away as possible from Washington, D.C. — a true Alaskan who hunts and fishes and grasps Western issues.

In one of her best moves, she opposed politics and pork as usual in the form of the Bridge to Nowhere, an expensive bridge from Ketchikan to a remote, sparsely populated island.

It's the Republicans' turn this week in Minnesota. Palin is new and different. She still has much to tell us and even more to prove.