Image courtesy the real cjs

According to The New York Times, and a variety of other sources, Senator John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. The Obama people must be elated. Senator McCain could not possibly have chosen a worse person to convince Americans he should become the nation's next commander-in-chief.

First and foremost, Governor Palin completely, totally and utterly undercuts the McCain camp's principal well-reasoned argument against an Obama presidency, that of Senator Obama's relative inexperience versus Senator McCain's. Unlike Senator Obama — who at least worked as a community organizer, served as the president of the Harvard Law Review, won a seat in the Illinois state Senate, lectured at the University of Chicago Law School, wrote two best-selling books and won a seat in the U.S. Senate — Governor Palin's only experience comes from a brief stint as a city commissioner, another stint as an appointed ethics reform tsar and two years as Alaska's governor. I suppose we needn't worry she will exert Cheneyesque control over Senator McCain. Or perhaps we should, given that her frighteningly short CV might lead her to make more than a few misguided choices. Regardless, the fact that Senator McCain believes her capable of becoming the nation's vice president shows the Arizona Senator cannot care as much as he professes to about experience.

More importantly, though, from a policy standpoint, Governor Palin supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Either Governor Palin doesn't understand how markets work, or Governor Palin wants to feed the nation's continued addiction to the very carbon-based fuels that have ravaged our environment and compromised our security. Or perhaps both. Given the relatively meager returns the U.S. would realize by drilling in the Refuge at the cost of disturbing, however gently, a magnificent preserve of the Earth's awesome biological diversity, and the fact such drilling only aids and abets economic stagnation, environmental destruction and petro-authoritarian regimes, drilling in the Refuge makes no sense.

It seems to me Senator John McCain has reached the point of desperation. While, when I last looked, the polls still had Senator Obama in a dead-heat with Senator McCain, the man must be worried. Without a doubt, Senator McCain chose Governor Palin as his running mate for two reasons. On the one hand, she appeals to the one-issue religious extremist vote, by staunchly opposing abortion and claiming to uphold "traditional values." On the other, as a female, the McCain campaign must have some irrational hope they will be able to persuade one-time Hillary Clinton supporters to cast their votes for the Republicans. She succeeds on the first count, though I have a hard time believing any supporter of Senator Clinton would be idiotic enough to support a ticket that so diametrically opposes Senator Clinton's views.

Joe Biden will have a field day at the vice presidential debate.