Happy Birthday John McCain

Well done on the pick sir!

Sarah Palin is a gamechanger. I am embarrased to not have seen the wisdom in this, and it beats the heck out of Mitt Romney.

The Democrats will trod out their "0% foreign policy experience" talking point. The fact is the man at the top of the ticket is unmatched on foreign policy experience and Barack Obama is the one that has only been a Senator for 4 years. Palin beats all three men on Executive experience.

Look at the way the McCain campaign rolled this out. Yesterday morning Lieberman was leaked. Then Romney was leaked. Then Pawlenty was leaked. Then it was going to be Romney then Pawlenty again. The McCain communications team kept him in the news all day and took the media for a ride. The pick did not leak out until this morning. which really helped the effect. We all woke up to a shock. Compare that to the Neil Kinn... err Joe Biden pick. Obama promised his supporters they would be the first to know via text message, the pick leaks at midnight and the text goes out at 3AM. I thought it was Obama's campaign that had the rock-star communications game and it was McCain's that was bumbling their way through the campaign.

Obama went negative at McCain hard last night while Palin was entirely positive. McCain has had the risk of winning men closely while losing women by a fairly wide margin. I think both genders are now in play. There is no saying that Romney would have been a positive on the economy because of his experience. The Obama campaign was probably thinking he would be an easy kill by continuuing their xenophobic, class-warfare campaign about houses and wealth. Palin grew up middle class in Alaska and is well off currently but not (rich). Also, both members of the GOP ticket has a son in Iraq so there goes the chickenhawk allegation. McCain has put him self on top the world today and Barack Obama is sweating it out in Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Steve Schmidt taking over from Rick Davis the day to day operations of the McCain camp has been a great benefit. The "celebrity" meme was questionable with regards to its effectiveness but apparently he guessed right. It now looks like the campaign is taking my advice. With a reformer on the ticket McCain can make the case that he is the change agent. To be viewed otherwise was always a poor reflection on how informed the American people are, not a poor reflection on McCain. Like I have previously said, politics are about brands, the ammunition is there, if it is fired correctly, Obama's lead on "change" can be erased, his brand discreted and he will be finished. Way to go Sargeant Schmidt.

Sarah challenged the Incumbent Republican Governor in a primary and won. She opposes the porkbarrel Republicans Young and Stevens, endorsing their opponents. Palin's brand is conservative reformer, maverick, and insurgent. Obama's vacuous "change" is coming to an end.

Governor Palin is a beauty pangeant winner, has 5 kids one with Down's Syndrome, has a husband that is a snowmobile racer and is an NRA member. Swing voters will eat this stuff up.

One of my worries for the past year has been who other than McCain can viably lead the GOP. A woman who is attractive, Religious, but rarlely invokes it like a Huckabee or Brownback, conservative but not extreme. You often here that all the GOP has to do is go back to Reagan. The problem is, 1980's problems are not 2008's. Palin will coopt Tim Pawlenty's "Sam's Club Republicanism" making a renewed effort to capture middle-class voters with market-based solutions. Palin is the future.

Congratulations to Governor Palin for being chosen to be the 1st female vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party on the anniversary of the day women got the right to vote.

p.s. Will she be the 1st female President?

p.s.s. What a ticket!