It's Palin!

My mother phoned me at work just before 11AM to tell me, “He's selected Sarah!”

I still felt a little down about the bread-and-circuses closing of the Democratic Convention last night, seeing it as a sleight-of-hand effort by the Obama team divert the public away from what he was really selling. But the news of McCain's selection made all of that fade away.

There has certainly been a groundswell of reactions McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate, most of it positive, even from many Democrats. There are quite a few links to reactions around the blogosphere and from the MSM to be found at Instapundit, here and here.

This selection is something I've been discussing with quite a few of my Republican friends for some time, and even wrote about almost two weeks ago.

McCain can capture the moderate voters in both parties all by himself, but he needs someone with the conservative credentials that will pull in the conservatives of the party while not turning off the moderates and the undecideds. That narrows his choices.

This should make Mitt Romney one of the last people McCain should choose, because too many in the GOP see him as a RINO (a Republican In Name Only), trying to wear the mantle of a conservative. But all anyone has to do is look at his record as governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to see he's no conservative.

McCain must choose wisely. Frankly, by choosing Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, former US Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, or Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, he'll have a pretty good shot at being able to move into the White House next January.

This is going to be one heck of a race for the White House!