Sarah Palin, Game Changer?

You have to hand it to the Republicans--they wasted no time stealing the show. John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Will the 44-year-old Republican rising star be a game changer?

• She is the first female candidate on a GOP presidential ticket, possibly appealing to disgruntled Hillary supporters who prioritize putting a female in a higher office over individual issues.

• She is strongly against abortion rights and gay marriage, which could galvanize the Republican evangelical base.

• She is strongly in favor of opening up Alaska to drilling and pipeline construction, placing priority on balancing environmental sustainability with economic development, which earn the GOP points on energy, if not the environment.

• Most importantly, she is a relative unknown, and just about as far from Washington as you can get, which could help convince dissatisfied Republicans that change--the mantra of this election--could actually stem from the GOP.

At very least, this is going to draw a wide audience to the GOP convention next week, an event that would have been widely ignored by most Americans. Palin has actually been a personal favorite of right-wing numbnut Rush Limbaugh, who as early as February called for Palin to join the ticket.

Here's a choice Rush Limbaugh exchange from that February 28th show:

RUSH: Sarah Palin. Okay.

CALLER: Yep. She's been heralded throughout the state as being personable, likable, intelligent, strong, and conservative. And she crosses over from conservative to liberalism not in thought, but because she stands by what she believes in. And, surprisingly enough, she has been at the forefront of ethics reform in our great state --

RUSH: Yeah, plus she's a housewife, before that, she's a babe. I saw a picture.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: Well, it's undeniable.

CALLER: Well, it is undeniable, and that's why the paradox is there for me. I think that because she's intelligent, number one, conservative maybe number one also, but she is photogenic, she is likable, she is engaging. When you meet her, she is interested in you, she speaks well.

RUSH: By the way, wait a second. I'm not diminishing any of those things by pointing out that she's a babe.

CALLER: Oh, no, no, no.

RUSH: The babe is the icing on the cake aspect, something the Democrats can't claim on their side.

CALLER: Exactly, especially when the highest Democrat that you can speak of is Mrs. Bill Clinton.

RUSH: You said it, not I. I just advanced the theory.

CALLER: Well, I can tell you that Governor Palin doesn't have to lift her chin up to 12 o'clock to get a good photo of her.

RUSH: I just love you. I love you, Julie. I love listening to women talk about other women like this.

CALLER: I am not berating Mrs. Bill Clinton, I am just --

RUSH: No, of course not. You are elevating Madam Palin.

CALLER: (laughing) Exactly.

RUSH: Absolutely.

CALLER: She can't take a bad picture not even from the back end.

RUSH: (laughing) She can't take a bad picture even from the back end. All of which you say is true.

Yeesh. To think that Rush Limbaugh has been the shepherd of the right in this nation for more than two decades. Wow. I think I need another cup of coffee and an aspirin.

Stay tuned...just when you thought this election could not get more historic...it did.