MCCAIN CHOOSES...MAGGIE O'CONNELL?

So after all of the guessing games and rampant speculation about who John McCain woul choose to be his running mate, we wind up with a mother of five who in four short years has risen from mayor of a small city in Alaska to now the potential leader of the free world. Maggie O'Connell--er, Sarah Palin, COME ON DOWN!! You're the next contestant on The VP Sweepstakes!

(Seriously though, does anyone know what Janine Turner is up to? She was sexy, funny and interesting on NORTHERN EXPOSURE and if McCain-Palin should somehow win the election, Turner should play her. Or they could get Tina Fey--Palin looks like a taller, slightly scarier version of her. But I digress.)

My wife put it pretty well when she said that John McCain was throwing a woman into the mix to try and steal any disgruntled Hillary supporters and while I'm impressed that McCain actually chose a woman to be his running mate, frankly the whole thing seems like a pretty desperate move to us. I might add that Palin, despite being a woman, is WAY more hard core conservative than McCain is, although if that is meant to appeal to the conservative "base" of the GOP, then that also seems like a miscalculation because that very same base would really prefer their archconservative standardbearer to be a man.

Oh well...beggars can't be choosers and and a bird in hand is worth two in the Bush. Or something like that.

A Few Other Thoughts on the Past Week of the DNC

--The Democrats and Denver did a great job putting on the convention, not such a great job moving the delegates from place to place. Overheard from some New York City delegates--"The shuttle buses are a joke and where is the mass transit?"

--Everyone knew Obama would give a great acceptance speech, but for me the surprise of the convention, at least oratorically, was Montana governor Brian Schweitzer. He had the whole arena laughing and even had the Master himself, Bill Clinton, standing up at his seat in appreciation.

--I suppose I'm happy that there weren't more protesters and more violence in Denver this past week, but in general I got the feeling that a lot of the protest hysteria was much ado about nothing. A Code Pink protester threw herself at a police officer (hey, I saw the raw video footage, trust me on this one) and the officer of course overreacted as Denver police officers tend to do, but that was about the worst of it. I think Spike Lee was the angriest guy I saw in town all week.

--The only celebrities I saw in person all week were all news people (Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell from NBC) and Tatiyana Ali (yeah, Ashley from THE FRESH PRINCE). Don't ask...

--A Black Hawk helicopter is a pretty impressive thing. I have a friend who got to ride in one, which I can't even imagine, but just seeing them fly all over town is something in itself.

That's all I got for now. Peace...