Judgment call

You have to wonder exactly what went on in John Sidney McCain's mind during the VP selection process.

He had a slew of high profile names to choose from, and he ended up selecting a complete unknown who's in the midst of an ongoing ethics investigation. You have to ask yourself, why?

Were they hoping to capture the disaffected Clinton voters? Is it really that big of a group that McCain would sign on a complete unknown for a running mate, solely on the basis of gender?

There were some strong finalists under consideration. My personal favorite, Sen. Joe Lieberman, would have certainly given McCain a viable ticket. Lieberman has done more for Sen. McCain than any other single Republican during the campaign, and I wonder what it was that caused McCain to pass Joe over. Was it the last-minute smear job by Karl Rove against Lieberman that did it? I don't think McCain feels that he can win this without Rove's help, so he may have been afraid to cross him.

That left Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty among the finalists. He's a fairly young and telegenic candidate with strong conservative credentials, and MN is expected to be a battleground state. I don't know of any major drawbacks to his selection, but possibly they found something during the vetting process that eliminated him.

Former MA Gov. Mitt Romney was probably ruled out because of his own mega-millionaire status and his pro-Choice credentials. Massachusetts is strongly Democratic, and he would have been hard pressed to deliver his home state to McCain.

Others such as Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee were eliminated early on in the process.

So why did McCain's campaign wait so long to look at Palin's ethics investigation? Celtic Diva reports:

A very reliable source overheard Republican spokesperson McHugh Pierre state TODAY (Friday) that he had spoken to the McCain Campaign. They are coming to Alaska tomorrow to check out the "Troopergate" investigation.

I'm getting the feeling that McCain's campaign was completely stymied until almost the very last minute on whom to select. This decision has all the characteristics of a rush to judgment.

If this is how McCain makes his decisions, we're all in deep trouble if he wins in November.