Palin from 35,000 Feet

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--John McCain really, really wants to win. So badly, in fact, that he choose a veep who has the same handicap he's always criticizing Obama for--inexperience. Only worse.

I just landed here in North Carolina after taking a 6:45 a.m. flight out of Denver.  This meant, of course, that I didn't get to experience the revelation of McCain's new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in real time. But the awkward timing did afford me an interesting vantage point on the announcement, as all of the Democratic delegates, strategists and various and sundry other politicos on board my Airbus A321 learned the news simultaneously, the moment the plane touched down, from the tiny flickering screens of their trusty CrackBerries.

The best way to describe the reaction aboard U.S. Airways Flight 1520: shock and awe.

I've done eight or nine "Veepwatch" profiles of McCain's possible picks: Romney, Pawlenty, Portman, Ridge et al. I never bothered to include Palin. The main reason: with only a small-town mayoralty and less than two years of governoring under her belt, the Alaskan, I suspected, would have a tough time passing McCain's "is she ready to be president?" test--the candidate's (oft-repeated) top criterion for picking a veep. "I'm aware of the enhanced importance of this issue given my age," McCain told Don Imus in early April, and it was hard to see how asking someone with an even shorter C.V. than Obama to stand a mere (septuagenarian's) heartbeat away from the Oval Office wouldn't hinder the Republicans' ability to attack the Illinois senator for his alleged "inexperience."

But now my gut tells me this won't be a huge problem for Crystal City--even though the Dems will rightly do their darndest make it one. "Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton in an immediate statement (watch for the coming swipes at Palin's ties to Big Oil). The problem, though, is that every time Chicago calls Palin green, it gives McCain yet another opportunity to question Obama's own resume. The pick presents Democrats with a knotty challenge: how do you argue that a fresh, groundbreaking Washington outsider is too inexperienced to be second fiddle while at the same time arguing that Obama--a fresh, groundbreaking Washington outsider himself--is ready to lead the free world?

The truth is, no one votes against a ticket topped by someone as seasoned as McCain solely because the No. 2 isn't an old Washington hand--especially when she's as compelling and complementary a character as Palin, a youngish former beauty-queen and mother of five who hunts, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, eats moose hamburgers, owns a float plane and has branded herself as a candidate of "reform" and "change." But plenty of folks are willing to reject a No. 1. because of a skimpy resume. In other words, experience is an argument McCain WANTS to have--and Palin, oddly enough, helps him have it. And it's no coincidence that the people Palin was chosen in part to woo--disaffected Hillary Dems--tend to think that Obama is not qualified for the White House. She's a political pick meant for maximum electoral impact. Whether she'd make a good vice president is another story.

As thumbs twiddled over trackballs and Beltway types barked into their phones, I overheard a few telling reactions. "It's very savvy," said a black strategist heading to Washington, D.C. "Biden can't really hit her hard because she's a woman. He risks looking sexist." A stewardess said she was "pissed": "Does he think we're stupid enough to vote for a woman just because she's a woman?" Meanwhile, the man seated next to me, also en route to the capital, read a quote from Karlo Rove about the pick "reshaping both parties' coalitions" and pumped me for more info. A few rows back, a woman called a colleague to ask if Palin is "attractive." "Is she attractive?" she repeated when her interlocutor misheard. "IS SHE ATTRAC... nevermind." But the most revealing response came from a tall gentlemen with reading glasses perched on the end of his nose. "Whooooaaaa," he said into his phone. "Sarah Who?"