Palin surpise is not without its costs to McCain

E.J. Dione points out the obvious hypocrisy of the McCain camp.

McCain obviously gained a credible advantage by waiting until the last possible moment to choose his VEEP. He also got the added benefit of claiming, once again, his maverick status by choosing Palin, a comparatively unknown.

We must give him his props.

However, by choosing an unknown, he opened the floodgates of scrutiny. This is to be expected because in our political system, scrutiny by the press is part of the vetting process for the entire country. We haven't had months to learn about Palin. So, with the short amount of time we do have, the press is fitting in all the scrutiny it can. What would have been stretched out over months if he had chosen earlier is being forced into a few short weeks. That's the price to be paid for the benefit of the surprise choice.

Now the McCain campaign cries foul hoping to blunt press interest. They want the benefits of the surprise, but not the accompanying negatives that may go with it. Too bad. We can't afford another Dan Quayle and for the Republicans to all fall in line with the Palin choice shows their utter lack of depth and intellectual honesty.

I personally think Palin won't have too much in her background. Her real problems will be rookie problems and a dearth of gravitas. We'll see though.

As to the maverick title so often self-applied by McCain's folks: John McCain is no maverick. Hell, he's worked in Washington since the 1970s. He's the epitome of a Washington insider.

Calling oneself a maverick and taking a couple of principled stands against one's party doesn't a maverick make. It's called politics.