OK, well, I had some Convention thoughts saved up anyway, and now McCain’s play … Wow! Let me start with that and work backward.

I love this pick. And not because of her politics, although that is important too. Seeing John McCain make a really sharp move is what fired me up. This took guts. It took smarts. And it took discipline. At the heart of my McCain reservations is the concern that he may be too much of a maverick. That at times he makes the “in your face” move just because he can. That would have been a Lieberman pick. Today he was a controlled maverick.

Palin is a sharp pick on so many levels. Obviously she is a great pick for conservatives. We were reluctantly going along anyway. This will keep us from wandering. And, as I said, it’s McCain showing that he may have some chops after all.

One thing I really love is the dynamic this sets up with Biden. Some have foolishly wondered if she can go toe-to-toe with the Senator from Delaware. She doesn’t need to. Palin’s presence is a temptation that Biden won’t be able to resist. You heard the bawdy talk in Denver. He’s aching for a fight. He’s on board to be the attack dog and I’m sure he was picturing a dust-up with Romney. But if Biden goes pit bull on Palin, the slow trickle of women voters toward the Republican ticket will become a tidal wave.

And I don’t think Biden can help himself. This windbag somehow thinks that decades of running his mouth on Capitol Hill somehow makes him more qualified than Palin who can boast a myriad of practical, tangible, meaningful accomplishments. All Palin needs in a debate with Biden is verbal judo. Let the Senator’s own momentum get him in trouble.

Then there is Palin’s personal experience. While Obama and Biden can talk about lofty, untested ideas from an untested man, her own life backs up her position. Anti-Abortion. Palin and husband eschewed abortion and added a Downs’ Syndrome child to their family. Defense. Palin’s son deploys on 9/11 (although Biden can at least match her there). And while we’ll be treated to limitless photo op’s of the others acting how they think “regular folks” act, Palin is regular folks.

And, this is just the latest in a series of events where McCain doesn’t just trump Obama, he embarrasses him. Last week much was made of Obama’s big secret. And when the big moment came, we got Crusty Joe Biden. It was the political equivalent of opening your Christmas present and discovering … a tie … that had been removed from your own closet 20 minutes earlier. I guess that’s why he finally went official with it in th middle of the night on a weekend. Fast forward one week, same scenario with John McCain. Gov. Palin was truly an electrifying surprise. Woo-hoo! We got the brand new X-Box in our package!

And the timing was impeccible. Credit McCain for a minimum of intereference with the anointing in Denver while it was going on. But not a moment more. It looks like Obama will get about half the bounce Kerry got from his Convention. McCain absolutely hijacked the media today, and with it being Friday he will likely own the long weekend. Of course it could be debated that McCain might have been better letting the media talk at length about Obama’s liberal laundry list of a speech.

Obviously experience is the wild card in the equation, and I’m curious what McCain was thinking. Was he assuming that Palin would take it away, and therefore sacrificing his primary line of attack in order to more agressively court female voters? Or was he banking on Palin’s presence keeping the experience debate on the table. I say, if they handle it right, McCain wins this one. Sure an Obama surrogate can throw out the mindless “lack of experience” charge if they are simply counting years. But that just opens the door for McCain, Palin or anyone else on that side to bring up more of Palin’s accomplishments and further demonstrate how, in a short time, her executive experience far outweighs Obama’s body of work. And we could probably make a good case for the complete lack of value in Biden’s decades of bloviation in the Senate.

I’d even go further and explain that while Palin lacks substantial time in high elected office, she has a demonstrated pattern of gaining positions she may not appear “qualified” for, and then succeeding wildly.

Suddenly I’m interested in this campaign!