Has McCain damaged his reputation by picking Sarah Palin? [Reuters]

Alert readers of this blog will recall instantly that I suggested Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, might be a good vice-presidential choice for John McCain, the Republican candidate, several months ago.

In focus

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But I never thought he'd actually do it. And now that he has, I'm not so sure it was a great choice.

First, the Palin pro's: Choosing her shows McCain is able to think outside the box and inject some excitement and buzz into his campaign.

She's attractive, young, a reformer and an apparently honest politician in the spectacularly corrupt political culture of Alaska.

By picking her McCain has pleased the Republican party's right wing, its social conservatives and its fervent anti-abortion contingent.

She's fiscally prudent, a feisty campaigner and extremely popular in her state.

And she's a woman.

That's the obvious reason why McCain chose her.

And she immediately made a direct appeal to Hillary Clinton's supposedly disgruntled voters with talk once again of shattering the 'glass ceiling' that prevents women from rising to top positions in business and government.

The Clinton vote

But the supposed political value of Palin's gender as a lure to those Hillaryophiles seems to me to be an illusion.

First of all, the women voting for Clinton presumably agreed with her about protecting abortion rights, ending the war in Iraq and establishing universal health care. 

Why would those women now completely abandon their political orientation entirely simply to support a female politician?

Furthermore, the appeal to the Clinton loyalists seems to me to be a trifle condescending — as if McCain and his strategists were throwing a bone to women, expecting them to vote for anyone so long as she was a woman.

And from the emails sent to some of the blogs since the Palin choice was made public, it appears many women feel the choice is demeaning and an insult to women's intelligence.

But the biggest reason why McCain's choice may backfire is that it is blatantly political.

Sarah Palin may be a fine governor and a wonderful wife and mother, but no one can seriously contend that she is prepared to be president.

And that eviscerates the whole narrative of the Republican campaign against Barack Obama - that he's too inexperienced to lead the country.

Palin has served less than two years as governor of Alaska.

Before that she was mayor of Wasilla — a small town near Anchorage.

She has no foreign policy experience whatsoever.

Her resume is so slim that McCain was reduced, bizarrely, to referring repeatedly to her athletic prowess.

And I winced when Palin listed as part of her qualifications that she had been active in the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) at her children's school.

Many conservatives expected national security and experience to be the themes of the Republican convention in St Paul next week. So much for that idea. 

McCain has attacked Obama - unfairly - for putting his own political career over the national interest.

Now he has done exactly that.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to choose Sarah Palin other than as an obvious ploy to grab enough women's votes to put McCain into the White House.

Katrina connection

If elected, McCain would be the oldest person ever to take the oath of office for the first time.

He has a history of cancer.

And he would allow an utterly inexperienced person just a heartbeat away from the presidency?

That doesn't speak well of McCain's judgment, not to mention his ability to put the good of the country over his personal political fortunes.

And that calls into question one of McCain's perceived biggest assets — his integrity.

There's a new hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, churning its way toward New Orleans, with landfall due around Monday, the opening day of the Republican convention.

There's been talk of rescheduling some of the events to avoid the unpleasant reminders of  the criminally inept way the Bush administration handled hurricane Katrina.

As Katrina hit Louisiana exactly three years ago, George Bush was attending a fundraiser in Arizona for — guess who? John McCain.