Dan Quayle with breasts?

So McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. I guess it's actually not shocking he didn't pick someone obvious. Nobody much cared about McCain's running mate choice when everybody thought he was going to pick Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty. And we all knew he really couldn't pick Lieberman.

So basically he picked an obscure governor who, prior to getting elected governor of Alaska in 2006, was mayor of a town of 9000 people. He picked her because she claims to be a reformer (although that's apparently mostly bullshit--remember, George W. Bush ran as a "reformer with results" in 2000), and because her youth--she's three years younger than Barack Obama--he apparently hopes will offset his own age. And I suppose he decided he couldn't beat Obama with a two-old-white-guys ticket.

Basically McCain has apparently decided to chuck the "experience" argument entirely and try to out-"reform" and out-"change" the Democratic ticket. Good luck. (Palin also has zero foreign policy experience--on that score she really does make Barack Obama look like, well, Joe Biden.)

It's a desperate and weird gamble and I'm actually not particularly worried that it will work. It does change the dynamic of the coming Biden-Palin debate, though. Biden will mop the floor with her, but it won't matter. If Biden is really good (and that's why Barack picked him, after all), he'll beat Palin by demolishing John McCain.

The funniest thing about this one is that apparently, she delivers her home state of Alaska to the Republican column. Has it come to this? No Democrat has carried Alaska since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and McCain had to pick the governor of the place to be assured of winning it?

EDIT: Bonus. Palin says "nookyoolar" too. Does anyone besides me get the feeling that this selection might become a punchline very soon, and have the effect of making the Democratic ticket look serious and the Republican ticket look laughable and desperate?