Besides, this isn’t the worst that’s going to come out about Palin, which I’m sure you already know about.

But I do want to ask this: How much time did McCain spend on his decision to name Palin as his running mate? Really. How much legwork did he do?

He’s had a much longer time to research candidates than Obama had since McCain wrapped his nomination up earlier. That’s enough time to do some pretty extensive background checking. I can’t believe someone has spent this long on the job and didn’t think for a second that this particular pick might be a little more troublesome.

It’s just baffling.

Then again, if I was going to battle Obama’s alleged elitism with an opposite, I’d probably look in a trailer park too.

Really. The fuck??

So McCain wants to exploit the disenfranchised Hillary voter by picking a woman as his running mate. Fair enough. Here’s my questions:

(1) Why couldn’t he have chosen Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, or Kay Bailey Hutchinson? All Republicans, all with more experience, all of whom are much more likely to have something in common with the moderation of the typical Hillary voter.

(2) She’s extremely far-right, and while that appeals to the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican party, that’s the wing that every Republican GOP candidate this year is running away from faster than a boyishly handsome airport ticket counter agent is running away from Larry Craig. This is not the voting bloc that’s going to sway the election.

(3) Anybody voting for any ticket strictly because of the genital contents of any candidate needs to get their political news from some source other than Soap Opera Digest. Also, they should be deported, even if they were born here.

(4) General statement: If you were a diehard Democrat Hillary supporter who can’t get over what happened and are going to pull the lever on the McCain ticket out of nothing more than spite as opposed to whatever values you might have had at one time, you know who you are? The Nader voters of ‘08. Except worse, because you also happen to be ideological sell-outs.

(5) One of her kids is named in tribute to Van Halen. (Okay, that’s just urban legend, but if the cast of Deliverance that calls itself West Virginia is going to continue making an issue of Obama’s middle name, then backatcha.)

(6) I’ll grant you: She’s hot.

(7) I’m not a political writer.

Oatmeal and granola.

[PS, I've looked into it, and suicide **totally** does NOT pay out from a life insurance point-of-view.]