McCain Announces VP Pick: Sarah Palin

Despite a comment yesterday from an anonymous staffer on the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin definitely wouldn’t be the VP pick, the campaign announced this morning that she is indeed the pick.

Palin is the current Governor of Alaska — she won the 2006 election on an ethics reform campaign and gained extensive attention for her efforts to publicize ethical violations in the Republican political machine.

With the choice of Palin, the McCain campaign gains a representative well known for her conservatism. Palin is supportive of teaching creationism in school, as well as pro-life. But there are some ongoing problems with Palin: last month, we covered a scandal involving Palin’s efforts to pressure the public safety commissioner into firing her ex-brother-in-law. At that time, Palin had been reportedly removed from consideration as a potential VP pick.

McCain’s choice surprised quite a few high-ranking Republicans. Tim Pawlenty, the Governor of Minnesota, and Mitt Romney had both been suggested as stronger choices. It seems likely that Palin was chosen in an effort to pick up the votes of Hillary Clinton supporters. But there’s a reason that no Alaskan politician has made it to the White House yet: there aren’t enough Alaskan voters to make up the fact that Palin is virtually unknown to voters in the continental U.S. I don’t think that Palin’s past as a former Miss Alaska contestant is going to change that.

There’s another major issue with McCain’s choice: Palin is only 44 — three years younger than Barack Obama. A large portion of McCain’s campaign is based on his argument that Obama is too inexperienced to lead. But Palin is actually less experienced — and has no national experience at all.

At best, I think Sarah Palin will be a controversial choice.