The New York Times is reporting that Senator John McCain will choose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate, making her only the second woman to be nominated for Vice President of the United States of America (Democrat Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate back in 1984, she was the first):

Senator John McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate on Friday, shaking up the political world with a surprise pick at a time when his campaign has been trying to attract women, especially disaffected supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. In choosing Ms. Palin — a 44-year-old conservative Christian and self-described “hockey mom” who has been governor for less than two years — the McCain campaign reached far outside the Beltway in an election where the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, is running on a platform of change. The pick, confirmed by Republicans familiar with the decision, amounted to a roll of the dice, a gamble that an infusion of new leadership — and the novelty of the Republican party’s first female candidate for vice president — would more than compensate for the risk that Ms. Palin could undercut one of the McCain campaign’s central arguments, their claim that Mr. Obama is too inexperienced to be president. But Ms. Palin ran as a change agent when she was elected as governor of Alaska in 2006, and in a move that might have appealed to Mr. McCain, she took political heat from members of her own party for turning the spotlight on the failures of Alaska Republicans, some of whom had been beset by corruption scandals. She opposes abortion rights, which could help pacify social conservatives who were wary as rumors swirled that Mr. McCain might pick a running mate who supports them. But she differs with Mr. McCain on a controversial environment issue that centers on her home state: she supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Mr. McCain’s opposition to drilling — even after he changed positions and began advocating for off-shore oil drilling — has upset many Republicans. The choice of Ms. Palin was a closely guarded secret, and she flew under the political radar for months as Mr. McCain conducted his search for a running mate. Much of the public discussion in recent days had focused on Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Mr. McCain’s one-time rival for the Republican nomination; Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota; Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security secretary, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat-turned-independent who was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000.

I gotta say, this choice was well-played by McCain. It’s a risky move, especially considering that he and she don’t have much in common. I was sure that McCain was going to pick either the turncoat Joseph Lieberman or the extremely scary Mitt Romney. I guess McCain felt that he needed to choose a running mate with a gimmick to try and bolster support for his campaign — a Pro-Life soccer mom who supports oil drilling in Alaska (one of our nation’s most valued natural resources), who won her governorship (an office she has held for LESS than 2 years) by denouncing her fellow Republicans (who, in her defense, were corrupt), was nicknamed “Sarah Barracuda” in high school and was first runner-up in the Miss Alaska Beauty Pageant back in 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro was the Vice Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Yeah, good luck with that :) This race for the White House just got a wee bit more interesting.

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