McCain has picked a running mate that I had never heard of before. Sarah Palin is a 44-year-old mother of five children, who has been the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 9,000. She won the mayoral election in 1999 with 909 votes.

In the gubernatorial election in 2006 she beat the incumbent Knowles by 48% vs. 40% of the vote. 114,697 people voted for her for governor. She has no other political experience and certainly no foreign policy experience. Her critics say she is not prepared to be governor, let alone vice president or president.

She hunts moose with her father, and she is a member of the NRA, which appears to be important enough to the GOP for it to be mentioned. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

In high school she played basketball and earned the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” because of her intense play.

Normally I would not write about the names of the children of a candidate. However, these are unique enough to mention them: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. Trig is an infant, born in April 2008 with down syndrome.

Bristol Palin, age 17, supposedly is 5 months pregnant. Her parents say she’ll get married to the father of the child.

McCain must be gambling that this choice will attract female Hillary voters. Does he realize that it probably insults more of them by assuming that all they did was vote for a candidate of the female gender, and that nothing else mattered? Are voters simply interchangeable?

I heard Palin speak for a few minutes yesterday. She has a shrill and somewhat annoying speaking voice. Apparently it has not hurt her in her career thus far.

The McCain camp has criticized Obama for not having enough experience. After the Palin pick, that will stop dead. The GOP can’t play the experience card anymore.

In contrast, Biden has decades of experience in national and international politics, has an encyclopedic memory for foreign policy details and is probably the best political attack dog in the country. I am looking forward to the vice presidential debate unlike ever before. Attack dog against barracuda. It won’t be pretty.

If McCain had to pick a woman, why not Condi Rice, a brilliant politician, known all over the world, recognized by everyone instantly? Does he really think Palin brings more to the ticket than Rice? Or did Rice not want the job? What about all the other recognizable names? Rudy or Mitt? Even their first names are good enough.

But Sarah?

How about Norbert?

I ran for school board in Fallbrook not once, but twice. Okay, I lost; but each time I got more than 5,000 votes. And I have studied six languages, which should be good for foreign policy. I could give speeches in Europe in their native languages. I bet I could pick up Arabic in no time.

John McCain, why didn’t you pick me?