MSNBC's Family Feud

"McCain's pick shows he is not pretending. Politicians, even 'mavericks' like McCain, play it safe when they think they are winning -- or see an easy path to winning. They roll the dice only when they know that the risks of conventionality are greater than the risks of boldness."

This Slate piece by John Dickerson is headined, "Huh?"

"Palin may turn out to be a smart choice--buzz-generating and bolstering McCain's claim to change--but the first hurdle is getting over the fact that she's not very well-known. This opens up the possibility for distracting and potentially damning mischief as her biography is filled out. The one thing people do know about her is her gender. On my early-morning flight from Denver to Minneapolis, as the news appeared on BlackBerrys before takeoff, passengers shared the news this way: 'McCain picked a woman."'. . .

"By McCain's own standard, she flunks the experience test. It's not that she doesn't have interesting experiences--she's a bio writer's dream. She was a sportscaster and a fisherwoman, doesn't mind smelling like salmon occasionally, was once runner-up in the Miss Alaska competition, and her husband is a champion snowmobiler. For all I know, she may also throw knives.

"But Palin is 44 and has been governor for less than two years. She has no foreign-policy experience. For a candidate who turns 72 today, the heartbeat-away question carries weight. It also seems to undercut a key line of attack against Obama. If Sara Palin is ready to be commander in chief, then so is Barack Obama."

Michelle Cottle sends a New Republic message to Biden--be careful:

"Let's traffic in some gender/political stereotypes for a moment: Obviously, Palin is a risky pick for McCain because she is approximately as qualified to serve as commander-in-chief as my Great Aunt Ruby (who has, full disclosure, been dead for several years now.) Indeed, I just finished listening to Linda Wertheimer on NPR grouchily voicing complete befuddlement over how McCain could pick someone so clearly unprepared in light of the senator's advanced age and questionable health.

"The contrast with Joe Biden is particularly stark. In a debate with Biden over--well, just about anything that doesn't directly involve the state of Alaska--Palin is almost certain to get her clock cleaned.

"But! Biden nonetheless needs to tread carefully and show more self-control and finesse than he is normally known for. Palin may be a varmint-hunting, moose-stew-guzzling NRA lifer, but she is still a woman--and an exceedingly delicate, feminine looking one at that. (A former Miss Wasilla no less!) And as irrational as they may be, the laws of politics forbid any man from behaving in a condescending, bullying, dismissive, mocking, or otherwise disrespectful fashion toward candidates of the fairer sex. Just ask poor Rick Lazio."

Some conservatives are saying Palin is a big risk, but many others are dutifully praising her. Can you imagine what the right-wing crowd would be saying about this woman and her 20-month stint as governor of the igloo state if the tables were turned and Obama had picked her? The chortles? The level of mockery?

Bill Kristol is one pro-Palin pundit:

"A spectre is haunting the liberal elites of New York and Washington--the spectre of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism, rising out of the American countryside, free of the taint (fair or unfair) of the Bush administration and the recent Republican Congress, able to invigorate a McCain administration and to govern beyond it.