Palin is an awful VP candidate but will help the ticket because we project a logic onto the electorate that it does not actually use to make its picks. The very things that make her a bad pick will make people's eyes go gooey. They won't pick her because she'll be a good veep, but because they like her and want to see themselves in her. They are living in a media event, not a crucial civic process. They'll gravitate to her in the same way they rally behind their favorite beleaguered celebrity without any thought to the actual eventual effect on the country if she becomes veep. They stop paying attention at that point anyway. Much of Obama's support comes from this same kind of thinking. If they lose, it won't be because regular people decided she was an awful choice.
I think Palin was a reckless and bizarre pick but I also think she'll really help their chances. The pundits and we in the commentocracy can debate things like experience or scandals or whatever, but people will gravitate towards her for exactly the reasons we say they shouldn't.
She's an inexperienced hockey mom. That sort of person shouldn't be vice president if you want competent national leadership. But the bulk of the people picking the president know very little about the mechanics of government, policy, legislation, statesmanship, etc. It's a media event for them, not a civic one. Yay normal woman made good. They create an internal narrative that says "yeah, this country SHOULD be run by normal regular people." And her looks and youth and momness subconsciously pull people toward her. She has underdog status too, and everyone wants the underdog to triumph over the pro. Biden by comparison, awesome as I think he is, and even as charismatic and genuine as he is, looks like a dusty, staid, old career politician white guy next to her to the average non-political person - no contest.
Any of this stuff about the bridge to nowhere, or the state trooper thing - the masses change the channel when that comes on. Facts go out the window and it's about whether we like the person and can see themselves in that person. People will start to like her and from that point nothing else matters. Even if she sasses Obama, people will see that as practical common sense stand-up-to-power kind of stuff and they'll admire her for doing what they imagine themselves doing.
Realistically Obama benefits from much of the same thing. He's young, attractive, and has a compelling underdog story. What kind of message is "Change"? That's almost like an abstract parody of a campaign theme. Change to what?! Change to anything else is fine with me at this point, but still. Yet people eat it up and wave signs with that one ridiculous word. I'm a politically aware person, but I have to admit that, aside from being a Democrat and the only choice, I want Obama because I like him. I'm sure his policies and leadership will be better, and I take that as pretty much of a given, but in truth I haven't really looked at them in detail. I know they're centrist/incrementalist as compared to what I really want out here on the actual left wing, but he had me based on feeling.
Palin will do that too. Hopefully she or McZombieflesh will screw up in some other way, but they won't lose because she's inexperienced and wildly inappropriate. That will help because people don't follow the rules we think they should logically follow. You'll see a sort of Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field emanating through the media until you can't believe that people are having serious discussions about her as a national leader. That's because the media eat their own product and words repeated mutate reality.
Bad candidate, great choice.