How Will Alaska Gov.Sarah Palin Affect the Presidential Election?

Except for what Jack Cafferty of CNN referred to as the "thirteen people and a few caribou" populating Alaska, the average American voter probably had a similar reaction to the news that John McCain had selected Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate that I had. "Huh?". "Who?" I had never heard of the woman and I read the newspaper every day and keep up closely with current events. That doesn't automatically mean that Sarah Palin is Dan Quayle in drag, you know a drag on the GOP ticket. Plus, as the child of two teachers, I believe, she can probably spell 'potato'. However, the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice President does raise some legitimate questions. Here are a few:

How ready is someone, anyone; man or woman, to be a heartbeat away from the office of President of the United States when that person is just a few years removed from the office of Mayor of Cicily, Alaska? Hold on, that was the fictional town from the TV series Northern Exposure. Speaking of which, Sarah Palin reportedly has a photo layout coming up in Vogue Magazine. Northern Exposure, indeed!

But back to the former Mayor of Fusilli, Alaska. Or is it Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan? Anyway, can being Mayor of a town with a population of less than 6,000 prepare someone for the office of Vice President with a President at 72 years old?

Is Sarah Palin related by marriage to Michael Palin of Monty Python fame? Some cynics probably thought Michael Palin had had a sex change and changed his name upon hearing the news. After all, Michael Palin dressed in drag and sang of being a lumberjack in one of Python's most famous skits. "Pawlenty" of lumberjacks in Alaska, right? I predicted John McCain would choose a Governor of a cold, northern state for his running mate, just not Sarah Palin, that's all. And Gov. Sarah Palin is a gun-toting lifetime member of the NRA.

How will "Dubya" react to the news that Sarah Palin supported Pat Buchanan in 2000 over "the Decider"? Speaking of Dubya, in the rally introducing Sarah Palin to an audience in Dayton, OH, the former Mayor of Godzilla, Alaska was described as a "uniter". Wasn't that Dubya's line in 2000?

The announcement was made, not only on John McCain's 72nd birthday, but on her and husband Todd's, known as the "first dude" of Alaska, 20th wedding anniversary. Rush Limbaugh raved at what a brilliant pick it was. Kind of like those beer ads in which one guy says he has invented something, which of course, was actually invented years or even decades before. "Brilliant!" the other guy exclaims. Rush Limbaugh would praise the selection of Paris Hilton on a Republican ticket, as unlikely as that would be after John McCain's recent commercials.

The biggest question to me as it concerns Sarah Palin is: is she a liability to John McCain due to her lack of name recognition and experience or an asset due to "freshness"? Winning the state of Alaska's three electoral votes won't be much of a factor. One would think that McCain would win there, anyway. So, just what does Sarah Palin bring to the McCain-Palin ticket?

Sarah Palin is a fresh faced Washington outsider with a reputation for reform. Whether that rep is deserved or not remains to be seen, but Palin did apparently push a strict ethics bill through the Alaska legislature in spite of Republican opposition. The first term Governor, the youngest in the state's history and the first woman to hold the office, reportedly took on the oil companies and other special interests. A plus in her favor. She opposed the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere", which, by the way did not lead to her town of Wahoo, Alaska. She is acceptable to the base of the GOP, maybe even popular with that group and without the right wing base of the Party, John McCain has no chance.

But that's about all that's known about Palin in the other 49 states. Is Sarah Palin on the ticket strictly to try to peel off the votes of disaffected and disgruntled Hillary voters? Is she a token woman, in other words? That's what several women on the Democratic side say. If that's the case, it's an insult to women voters to think you can get their votes simply by including a woman on the ticket. Of course, many GOP pundits were crowing that a woman was welcome on their ticket, implying that Hillary Clinton was passed over for Joe Biden solely on the basis of gender.

Mike Huckabee, the egotistical former Governor of Arkansas and erstwhile candidate for President, seemed especially pleased with himself for that "observation". What the Huckster, as he is known in Arkansas, didn't say was how it must sting to be a 10 year Governor with a good relationship with McCain, a man who would appeal to the so-called "Christian right" at least as much as Palin, a man with much more name recognition than Palin, and be passed over for a first term Governor of the least populous state in the Union. One can almost hear the air being let out of Huck and Slick Mitt Romney's balloons.

Even Ed Rollins, veteran campaign guru for the GOP, referred to Sarah Palin's selection as a "Hail Mary pass". It was a risky choice , to be sure, but in the wild and wooly Election 2008, who knows, "Hail Mary" passes are somtimes completed. Whether Sarah Palin turns out to be a Dan Quayle or a hit on the campaign trail, the Tina Fey look-alike would be advised not to go hunting with Dick Cheney.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Sarah Palin is six years removed from being Mayor of Walla Walla, Alaska.