Thank you, John McCain. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You've finally got me thinking that Obama might just beat you.

Many pundits agree that choosing a running mate is the first semi-presidential decision a nominee makes. The nominee always claims that they have chosen the one person in America that is ready to become President at any time. Let's see how you did.

Obama's main weaknesses are a lack of experience in general, and a lack of international experience. He chose Joe Biden, a long time senator who is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Your main weakness is your age. You are the candidate most likely not to survive your term in office. I know that 72 isn't as old as it once was, but add to that the five and a half years of torture you endured in Vietnam, and your body might well have aged more than your years. You also are a cancer survivor.

With all of that working against you, you chose a 44 year old former beauty queen and hockey mom who has been Governor of Alaska for less than two years. It might well be that she is ready to become President in case you drop dead or get caught with an intern, but you're asking the voters to take a big chance.

Do you remember that I noted that the nominee always claims that his running mate is the best person on Earth, besides you, to be President? Are you asking us to believe that you searched all through the Republican Party and decided that Gov. Sarah Palin is that person?

There are plenty of Senators and Congressmen who seem better qualified. Men like Lamar Alexander or Joe Leiberman. There also were plenty of governors with more experience,such as Mitt Romney or even Mike Huckabee.

If you were determined to choose a woman, again it seems like you had better choices. Elizabeth Dole and Olympia Snow are just two who come to mind.

The two main assets you had going for you up until now were your experience and judgement. With this choice you are saying that experience doesn't matter, and does give one reason to question your judgement.

Maybe you were just following tradition. Republican nominees do have a history of unusual choices for running mates. In 1964 Barry Goldwater picked Bill Miller who was so unknown that he made a credit card commercial that made fun of that fact.

In 1968 Nixon had even die hard Republicans saying, Spiro who? It was just his dumb luck he chose a running mate just as corrupt as he was.

Even the most ardent Reaganites were shocked when he chose George Bush. And don't forget how he almost chose Gearld Ford. That choice actually had some true conservatives upset.

Of course the championship pick of all time came when that same George Bush chose Dan Quayle as his running mate. People still wonder why he did that, but not me. It is so obvious when you think about it. Quayle reminded him of his son.

With that kind of history maybe you just couldn't help it.