Count me in!

Wow! Senator McCain surprised me by picking Governor Palin as his running mate. But, oh my, am I delighted with the choice. Let me count the ways:

1. Senator McCain picked someone with street cred to reinforce his message about reforming the moribund Republican party, and the open-wallet Capitol Hill ethos. [The challenge will be electing a working Republican majority in either the House or the Senate that shares the same goals.]
2. Governor Palin is articulate and seems to have her priorities well-ordered. She's passionate about governing well, "with a servant's heart", and has acted on that principle as Governor.
3. Governor Palin is willing to stand up to the the politically-correct environmental lobby, having sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne recently on the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species (polar bear populations are increasing, by the way).
   
4. She's a breath of fresh air in a race that's been all inside-the-Beltway and Senate-centric. If nothing else, her being on the ticket is getting people talking – like a couple of 70-something European-immigrant(?) women I overheard at lunch today.
   
5. Like other state governors, she commands the Alaska National Guard "while it is not in active federal service." She has visited them in Kuwait and at the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
   

All in all, a class act.

Some scorn her experience level, but she's running for Vice-President, not President. I'm sure she'll have more opportunities as understudy to Mr. McCain if he wins in November than Truman had under FDR. She'll have the benefit of the team of advisors he assembles, plus the countless years of combined experience and institutional memory provided by the military and Civil Service bureaucracies.

Update: Check out Greta van Susteren's interview with Major General Campbell for the scoop on Governor Palin's involvement with the Alaska National Guard. (h/t Hotair)