The sheer brilliance of McCain’s choice and the way it was kept secret is obvious to everyone except Obamabots. Especially nice is the misdirection bit, when Pawlenty canceled his appearances. Obama campaign was caught completely by surprise and their knee-jerk response to attack Palin’s experience will come back to haunt them. The dems charges of cynicism and pandering in selecting Palin also don’t hold water. Most of the Clinton supporters who were “in play” were already, though unwillingly, supporting McCain. The change in polls on announcement of Biden as the bottom of the ticket is evidence to that effect. In retrospect, Palin is great choice for a multitude of reasons and appeal to women and Clinton supporters is only one of them.

Karl Rove was right to say that McCain will get a sizeable boost from this, but in the long run, things will get more complicated. A lot depends on Clintons and the extent to which they will support Obama. Right now, Obama and the DNC has got them by the balls due to Clinton’s campaign debt. However, the selection of Palin has now re-energized Clinton base, which might result in extra donations for her. GOP should make a backroom deal with Clinton for funneling some money into her coffers to pay off the debt in exchange for “going through the motions” for Obama, rather than a full-court press support.