[Apologies for reposting this, but an RIA bug wiped out all my paragraph formatting.] At first I thought McCain's selection of Palin was the best thing we Obama supporters could have hoped for. After all, women are smart enough to see through this, right? Former Hillary supporters wouldn't be so daft as to vote for this inexperienced ultra-conservative just because she's a woman, right? No one is going to be impressed by a person with absolutely zero foreign policy credentials, right? But upon reflection, I'm not so sure. A Vice President's most important duty is to be ready to step into the presidency at a moment's notice. Palin is almost totally unqualified and would be a terrible choice for President. The thought of her as commander in chief scares the snot out of me, as does the prospect of having a president with such ultra-conservative values. But McCain obviously didn't have that in mind. Rather, this purely political decision was solely designed to give him a better shot. It frees him of the constraints that were being foisted on him by the conservative base, who never liked him, and he wanted to energize Republican women enough to vote rather than sit home. If he could pick up some Hillary women or some Reagan Democrats, so much the better. Palin does those things for him. She has energized the social conservatives, especially the women, and the evangelicals are thrilled with her. Palin's stances are right up their alley. What could be better than an anti-abortion, Bible-thumping, gun-toting VP who says the war in Iraq is "God's task." She also appeals to fiscal conservatives: she put the Alaskan airplane on eBay and claims she opposed the "bridge to nowhere" and other entitlements (though omits mention of her former support). Her selection demonstrates the McCain campaign's switch in focus to cultural values, a strategy they hope will increase support in the swing states where he lags behind Obama, since it worked for Bush. Working class voters will identify more with Palin than with Obama, who has been inaccurately and unfairly stuck with the "elitist" tag (since he was raised by a mother who was 18 when he was born, deserted by her husband at age 20, and who had to get food stamps). They want someone with whom they can identify with rather than someone with a lot more intelligence, better judgment, and an Ivy League education. They're saying "This hockey mom is one of us. She thinks like we do. And she's not black." Now McCain can play Mr. Nice Guy, who's going to end all this divisive political rancor, while she attacks. Having made a surprising selection, McCain can now try to recast himself as an agent of change. So it's not such a dumb move. Perhaps it's even a very smart move. We'll see. But my question is this--couldn't he have picked a conservative woman with more experience and better qualifications? What does that failure tell us about his judgment?