Allowing a full twelve hours to pass after the Democratic Convention’s dust settled before making his announcement, Republican prez nominee John McCain released the name of his running mate this morning: Alaska’s governor Sarah Palin. McCain praised her for her buck-the-system approach to local politics during her rather short stint as governor. And shrewdly eyeing those potential Hillary-minded swing votes, he added, “Did I also mention she has a vagina?”

During her two years as governor, Palin, the very second female to appear on a major party ticket, has “lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science.” Which isn’t a big surprise from a self-proclaimed creationist, for whom “science” apparently holds fairly little sway.

Most recently, Palin, whose husband, by complete and totally, utterly, utter coincidence, works for the oil industry, sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to get polar bears taken off the Endangered Species list. Sued that tree-hugging hippie George W. Bush for going soft on polar bears. Palin prefers the tough-love, “growing up in a literally melting habitat with your food supply rapidly disappearing gives you bears a little character” attitude. Even without her running mate being the oldest in American history, having this person a breath away from the executive office is a little scary. But at least she might help give “moose burgers” the heretofore completely unrealized popularity in the continental states they’ve so richly deserved.

Shocking Choice by John McCain, Says Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund (WSJ)