She'd been mentioned a lot earlier this summer but had unaccountably fallen off the radar over the past week or two. But I think she's a pretty smart pick, as a Washington outsider and especially as someone who mirrors McCain's "maverick" storyline. She's challenged Alaska's Republican establishment and - get this - personally killed the Bridge to Nowhere. It'll be interesting to see whether the campaign tries to ignore the Ted Stevens controversy or actively campaigns on it (citing the fact that Palin supported the probe into Stevens's finances).
Romney was probably just too rich to be picked (imagine Housegate II). I don't know that much about Pawlenty, positive or negative. Lieberman would have been a dramatic and gutsy pick: it would have strengthened McCain's appeal to independents immeasurably and made it easier to cast Obama-Biden as far-left liberals, but it would have outraged the conservative base (as Palin notably does not). And it would have made for a very awkward convention in St. Paul.
I'm unconvinced that this makes it a slam dunk for McCain to bring in disaffected Hillary supporters, but picking a woman certainly couldn't hurt.
My thoughts on Obama's speech and the DNC to follow later today. (See, this was exactly why McCain announced today! The one way to draw the spotlight 12 hours after Obama's speech. A few people speculated that he'd do it yesterday, overshadowing the speech, but that would have looked really bad. Better to do it today.)
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