I don't know if you've ever heard of internet guru danah boyd or folk/sf songwriter extraordinaire Tom Smith, but they have brilliant takes on the Palin choice. More beyond the jump...
First, Tom:
Well, this works. McCain's lack of knowledge about the world will be offset by Palin's extensive travel to pretty much the entire globe; his lack of empathy with the common man will be made up for by Palin' long experience writing about and portraying common people in all walks of life; and his stiff, fake speech delivery will be neatly circumvented by Palin's decades of performance in film and television.
-- what's that? That's not who McCain picked? He picked Sarah Palin, who's only been governor of Alaska for a year and is already under ethics investigation? A woman who's good with creationism?
Bring it.
This is even better than the speculation a few months ago that McCain was thinking about Natalie Portman. (If you don't yet get the joke, think about famous people named Palin...) And for the absolutely and wonderfully serious boyd:
As a woman, I'm offended by John McCain's decision to select Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. It is clear that the decision is primarily driven by politics, by the belief that to get Hillary's supporters, all you need to do is play the gender card....
Palin is not Hillary. Palin lacks the experience, the connections, the political stature, and, most importantly, the deep respect for women and women's issues that Hillary has....
As a woman, I'm offended. I'm offended that McCain is choosing a woman who is clearly ill-equipped to be the president of this country in an effort to woo over Hillary's supporters. I'm offended because McCain's decision is one of the most misogynist ones I've seen in recent history....
That's only part of a long and wonderful blog entry.