I guess I'll have to google her some. Right now it just feels like. "Hillary had a lot of supporters", "Hillary is a woman", "Palin is a woman", "Palin can get their votes".

I do agree they'll be done anyway. Logical consistency is not a hallmark of inter-campaign bickering (in either direction).

They just have to be very careful how they do it. McCain questioning Obama's readiness in a debate and then getting the question I posed above would, I think, make for devastating TV.

Either candidate only needs a small edge to win this. Safest move is to find someone not particularly objectionable (eg: won't lose them votes over anything) who just might pick up a few (otherwise throwaway) votes for some stupid reason or another.

And I hate to say it, but ya gotta admit there ARE people who would vote the McCain ticket because he played the female-in-office card. Maybe not "many" but it isn't going to take "many" to win this election.

As per my post above, that might be exactly what it is. And it might work, even if she only picks up a fraction of the female vote.

Here's a theory: The majority of folks on the short list all have presidential aspirations. They have concluded 1) that McCain can't win, and they don't want people in 2012 to remember their most recent significant accomplishment as being a losing VP candidate; 2) that even if he does win, he's a one-termer and 2a) even if he does win and is a one-termer, the odds are against anything good happening in the next four years. Thus, McCain was left with the Hail Mary option.

Listened to NPR on my drive in. They'll be dismissed as slanted but they were rather perplexed by the choice not seeing much benefit to McCain in it (except for possibly shoring up centrist-right women and being some mollification for the pro-life crowd) and a fair amount of questions (similar to what I was saying in that many of the barbs they throw at Obama would apply to Palin).

Didn't hear her entire speech (got to work) but was pleased that she didn't milk her new child having Down's Syndrome -- let the media do that for you -- and did milk her son going to Iraq (which is smart and I still wonder why Biden didn't do it). She also did not, though I'm guessing she literally could right now, milk herself.

People who get pissy at nukular and Eye-rack and Eye-ran will be grinding their teeth.

I was directed to a video on YouTube from Wiki. This is it. I wanted to hear her speak, see what she was all about. This was not the best clip to see of her, I think. At about 1:54, after she is asked a question, she says:
Shouldn't she know? Maybe have an inkling? Maybe look up "Vice President of the United States" on Wikipedia?

After that answer, the host's response was an attempt at humor but it sounded like he was treating her like a kid. Which was lame.

The only thing I know about her is an article I read in Vanity Fair a few months ago. I was actually impressed with her based on the one article. I actually think it is a smart choice and I think it makes him a bit dangerous.

I can't watch the video. But I think it is a perfectly valid question. The vice presidency, as an office, does not have anything they're supposed to do every day. Officially, they just sit in their comfy living room over at Observatory Circle and wait for the president to die.

So each president gets to define what, if anything, the vice president will get to do. Presumably McCain has offered Palin a role she finds satisfactory (hopefully it is beyond "I want you because you'll shore up some of my female support and you have a very similar chin as my wife")

I suppose. But Cheney seemed to be pretty busy as VP.