Panicked McCain Picks Palin

Back in the 60s, Motown's Martha and the Vandella's sang, "Love Makes Me Do Foolish Things." Perhaps that helps explain McCain's Palin pick: Love. Why else would he take 60 years of Republican national security bravado and stand it on its head? And we're not talking just any "love", either. No, he did this after one meeting with Palin. That qualifies as "Love at first sight."

Seriously, in one fell swoop, McCain took what he considered to be his best argument against Obama - Obama's youth and inexperience - and tossed it out the window. By picking a V.P. younger than Obama, and with less foreign policy experience, and then placing here to within a breath of the presidency, he tells America "Experience is overrated; ('cute' is far more important)." In the land of "American Idol" and MTV, he may be right.

On the last day of the Democratic National Convention, McCain watched an NFL stadium fill to the rafters, and then learned that another 40 million Americans had tuned in...just to hear Obama speak. That's when he decided, "I can't beat this man...not unless I go nuclear." He panicked.

McCain got so caught up in his own captious railings against Obama's celebrity that he convinced himself he needed a celebrity, too. So, he picked Palin who has a darling little girl, to boot. (Haven't you noticed? America loves little girls in the White House. Witness Caroline, Amy, Chelsea, the Bush twins, and on the horizon, Sasha and Malilah). McCain saw Sasha and Malilah on that stage with their father. He panicked.

Nonetheless, there are practical reasons for the Palin pick. She is to the right of McCain. That pleases the Republican base to no end, many of whom see McCain as a default choice. Strange, however, that McCain would hold Palin up as the Hillary alternate - a crass way of wooing Hillary diehards. In essence, he is saying to the feminist left, "Look what I have for you." These women, who fiercely value their right to choose, must ask McCain, "Are you serious?"

Could it be that McCain is far more shallow - and reckless - than many of us had imagined? He certainly appears to not know what he is doing from one day to the next. Fortunately, when a candidate flies his campaign by the seat of his pants, it gives America time to wonder if he would run the White House the same way.