mccaingryus1.thumbnail.jpgPresidential candidates have a single task to perform expertly between securing their party's nomination and Election Day: the choice of a running mate. Everything else is politics and speeches. (And, by the way, wasn't our guy's just swell?)

Campaign appearances, photo-opportunities, and even debates are grist for Villagers and other rubes who read into them all kinds of sillliness as they fondle and interpret them. But the only thing a presidential candidate actually does that the American people can really evaluate is this: pick a running mate who doesn't embarrass yourself, your country, your dignity and your honor.

Don't pick a candidate whose family and staff leaned on one of her direct reports to fire a guy who had a messy divorce with her sister, then fired the direct report and replaced him with a guy with a sexual harassment history who lasted only two weeks but got a nice severance.

Don't pick a candidate whose foreign policy experience is based on her state's proximity to Russia.

Don't pick a candidate to shore up your rapidly peeling-away base, the Beltway gasbags who enjoy nothing more than dramatic narratives, but who haven't had the country's best interests at heart since the Clinton impeachment drama.

Don't pick a candidate to enrapture the base of your party that's never fallen in love with you: the fundamentalist evangelicals who have captured your party and turned it into a voice for theocracy.

Don't pick a candidate as a cynical sexist ploy because you think her gender will make women who supported Hillary Clinton swoon, especially since Hillary's name still elicits boos at your own rallies. This will really bomb if your Veep's own views are antithetical to liberal progressive feminism -- a creationist who favors state-forced birth, is anti-gay and anti-environment, who may (?) favor The Surge and is pro-gun.

Show good judgment: pick a candidate who is ready to lead the country on day one, especially since you are the oldest-ever first-time candidate for the presidency and a four-time cancer survivor.

Respect your own service to our country and those who've chosen public service alongside you: pick a candidate whose public experience summary needn't highlight her PTA service.

Honor the women, if you want to run with one, whose public service does not prominently feature a current public integrity investigation. Maybe choose based on more than one phone call?

Choose honorably: respect those who stood in battle with you, tested you and made you a better candidate for the office you now seek.

Think of your country first: completely research your choice, so that Americans are not embarrassed by rumors within hours of your choice, stories that reflect badly on your skills as a chooser of talent, someone who could face impeachment at home. America has had enough of poorly chosen, poorly vetted, ideologically pure office-seekers and -holders. Can't you show some contrast with the Bush Administration in that regard?

Finally, do the honorable thing: don't grab the quick news cycle, in an attempt to tamp down enthusiasm for an historic event the previous night with an impulsive wild card choice. Don't leave others hanging if you've really chosen someone else. Don't set your running mate up to tell untruths about the "bridge to nowhere" on her very first day. Don't try to tell us your new running mate didn't really support Pat Buchanan in 2000. Don't look like you are captive to a faction within your party. Don't try to sell America someone you'd only met once. Don't try to tell us she's ready for primetime when her own husband says "she's not wired normal."

Does this choice show good judgment on John McCain's part.
No.

Does this choice acknowledge the experience John McCain's told us throughout his campaign is so important to be President?
No.

Does this choice illustrate John McCain's honor?
No.

Does this choice mean John McCain puts Country First?
Hardly.

Is this choice about Sarah Palin, or is this choice about John McCain?