I'm not going to tell you she's an incredible choice and we're all screwed. But the McCain people are cunning image manipulators, and I'm getting the sense that there are good strategic reasons that they went for her, beyond her gender.
She's got reform credentials, she's got the youthful appeal, and she's fairly popular. She even has, in her corruption problem, a somewhat sympathetic motivation.
What we've got to do is define her, and define her fast. Get better information as quickly as we can get it on her and make it clear that she is part and parcel of the Republican party.
My advice? Emphasize her inexperience in a substantive way. Test her knowledge to the limits. If she is not as aware of crucial issues as Obama has demonstrated himself to be, her inexperience will become less a note of freshness, and more a note of concern
Provoke, dissect and confront her on her Right Wing views, not in a mean way, but in such a way that it is difficult for her to avoid give people out her non-mainstream views. If she gets muddy on those views, confront her with what she has said before.
Where she stands shoulder to shoulder with Bush and the Republicans, we need to make that clear. Where she differs, we need to contrast her views and those of her running mate, creating cognitive dissonance and forcing the McCain campaign to either flip-flop or correct her error. McCain's risk in going outside the mainstream, known Republicans could pay off in separation of his ticket from the corruption of Washington. But, this move takes McCain off center, and her distinction from Washington Politics can easily come into conflict with McCain's deep involvement with it. Asking about McCain's various activities, about who is on McCain's staff.
McCain is trying to fool around with appearances by getting her on the ticket, and the best thing we can do is stop them from fooling people about who McCain really is.