The Hail Mary

Ok, Gov Sarah Palin is an out-of-the-box pick for John McCain, a deep ball if you will.

But I don't buy this "Hail Mary" business. The pick of Jack Kemp by Bob Dole in 1996 was a Hail Mary (and the GOP liked to think of it that way at the time since Jack Kemp was a former AFL championship quarterback). But John McCain was even in the polls before the Convention To Nowhere, and since then the best poll for Obama has him leading by six percentage points. With the momentum in his favor, McCain was better positioned to win the election anyway.

Emotionally speaking, this is about aggressiveness, not desperation.