Sen. Ted Stevens Convicted

Hours ago, Alaskan Republican Ted Stevens was convicted on 7 counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in shady gifts. Now that's a lot of pantsuits! Though bad press about any Republican could be bad news for McCain, this story could have illustrated McCain's actual strengths: A hard stance against earmarks and corruption. However, Sarah Palin's presence on the ticket prevents McCain from using this story as a new line of attack because she has many ties to the disgraced Alaskan politician.

This isn't the first time Palin has disarmed a key piece of ammunition in McCain's political arsenal. Hillary Clinton nearly defeated Senator Obama in the primaries, running mostly on her experience versus Obama's short time in national politics. McCain's experience in government, military, and politics was seen as huge strength early on in his fight against Obama. His unquestionable experience provided him many lines of attack against Obama's perceived naiveté, foreign policy inexperience, and perhaps unrealistic optimism. Hillary Clinton proved this line of attack to be a successful angle towards defeating Obama, but McCain could no longer use it when he chose the highly inexperienced, Sarah Palin.

There is no doubt Sarah Palin has a tangible amount of government experience as a popular governor and successful mayor. In fact, the McCain campaign has tried hard to suggest that she is even more experienced than Obama, but the fact is that McCain still can't disparage someone for being a newcomer when he is standing right next to one on the podium.

Sarah Palin certainly fills in most, if not all, of McCain's weaknesses: His age, ties to Washington, and initial lack of support from the social conservative base. This is where McCain and Obama's choices for Vice President are similar. Biden also corrects all of Obama's weaknesses: His youth, foreign policy inexperience, and wavering support from rural white voters. However, the key difference is that Joe Biden does not hurt or complicate any of Obama's strengths, thus making them a very powerful team. Sarah Palin, though, leaves McCain with very few strengths left to mention without contradicting the overall ticket. Once Palin removes his superior experience and opposition to corruption with her own problems involving the Bridge to Nowhere and relationship with Senator Ted Stevens, McCain is left with the two strategies we've been seeing over the last two months: Prisoner of war versus a non-soldier and patriotism versus extremism.

Regardless of what happens in a week at the polls, the problems with the nomination of Sarah Palin will serve as this warning to future candidates: It's good to play defense, but don't sacrifice your offense at the same time.