Before her role in fighting terrorism in Alaska as the current Governor, Sarah Palin served on the Wasilla City Council and then spent two terms as Mayor/Manager of Wasilla, Alaska. Not once during her service were the 5500 residents of Wasilla attacked by terrorists.  Since assuming the office of Alaska’s Governor almost twenty months ago, again no terror attacks have taken place in the state.  And in geographic size, it is a very big state. For this accomplishment she is clearly ready to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency.

But seriously now, with today being McCain’s 72nd birthday, and with his history with cancer, it is fair to consider whether a candidate for Vice-President would be ready to assume the the presidency should something tragic occur. In her remarks this morning introducing herself to the country as McCain’s Vice-Presidential pick, Palin emphasized her role in fighting corruption, as a reformer, and in taking on the “good ol’ boys” network. That’s all well and good, but fighting corruption in Alaska (population 670,053) is a lot different than tackling it in the United States overall (population 299,398,484).  But if Rudy Giuliani believes that you can’t be President without executive experience, then with her 20 months as Governor, he must believe she is more qualified for the Presidency than McCain.

As David Gergen said on CNN this morning — if McCain claims that the most important issue and challenge facing the next President is the fight against global terrorism, then this pick makes no sense. This pick takes the experience issue out of play for McCain, though he may not “get it” yet. And in the Vice Presidential debate with Joe Biden, we can guess who is going to come across as more ready to tackle foreign policy issues.

The choice of Palin is transparently an aggressive grab for the disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporter. And it may work with a few of them.  Palin herself, in her remarks in Dayton, mentioned the “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” that Hillary Clinton made with the number of votes she received. But will those Hillary supporters be swayed when they learn of Palin’s staunch anti-choice record? Or her unwavering support for personal gun rights and against most gun control? Or that while running for Governor she supported the teaching of creationism in public schools? Hard to say.

The dynamics of the race now favor Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  Last night’s acceptance speech was glorious in tone and presentation.  Obama took John McCain on when it comes to national security issues, and said

If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament and judgment to serve as the next commander-in-chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.

With the selection of Sarah Palin, McCain may have decided he doesn’t want that debate.

UPDATE: The Obama campaign spokesman, Bil Burton, on the Sarah Palin pick:

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same.”