John McCain has certainly revived his maverick label bypicking--or plucking from obscurity--freshmanAlaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. (WaPo coverage here, and NYT coverage here.) Like every candidate, there are pluses and minuses.

On the plus side, Christian conservatives (as God-o-Meter knows and shows), are going to be delighted with Palin. She is a self-described "hockey mom" who is pro-life and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. She is a moose-hunting mother of five, her latest--born just last April--has Down syndrome, and she wouldnever consider abortion, which she opposes personally and as a legal option. She has bucked the scandal-plagued GOP establishment in Alaska, and has shown a mild green streak without really undermining her state's interests in mining and Big Oil. She is against taxes (except, apparently, when it came to building stuff in her own town), and against gay marriage. Check, check, check.She is a sweetheart, a 44-year-old fresh face who is as far outside the Beltway as you can possibly get without being Russian. And she is so attractive the Obama camp will have to be careful not to look like they're bullying her, or patronizing her.And those things are also major risks in the general election. Will someone like Palin really pull in those supposedly disaffected Hillary supporters? Not likely, not after Bill's show-stopping speech and policy differences between Palin voters and Hillary voters.Moreover, how can the McCain camp work the "inexperienced" wedge against Obama when Sarah Palin will be a heartbeat away from an Oval Office that would be occupied by John McCain, who would be the oldest man ever elected president? She has less than two years as governor, and before that the sum total of her governing experience was as mayor of Wasilla, a town of less than 7,000.If Obama has been painted as little more than a good-looking Esquire cover guy, how about Palin, a former beauty queen who was runner-up in 1984 as Miss Alaska? Some will think McCain picked his daughter, others his third wife. (What is it with Republicans and beauty pageants, anyway?) Palin is sharper than Dan Quayle, but still...Imagine the Biden-Palin VP debate. Voters want change, but they also want ballast. And they want someone who can step in. Sure, Palin is a wonderfulmom. But she is the mother of FIVE, and the last a special needs infant born just FOUR MONTHS ago. She'll have to haveMary Poppins and a couple Super Nannys with911on speed-dial if she hopes to fill the 24/7 job as Vice-President.Her environmental cred may not stretch too far, either. Check out the dissection by the HuffPost's Chris Kellyof her Polar Bear record and her JanuaryNYTimes op-ed in which she said all was well with the big critters. Now that the polar bears are actually swimming across hundreds of miles of open water looking for receding ice floes, you can imagine the video in the camapign ads to come.And while she has a reputation as a whistle-blower on ethics, she is also under investigation for a firing and other machinations related to penalties against her estranged ex-brother-in-law, astate trooper. Add to that the fact that the dominant Republican Party in Alaska is a cesspool of scandals and indictments, and Palin's odor of sanctity may not endure.So what does the choice of Palin say toall those "new" evangelicals? Will her fresh faceattract them? Or will she come across as the oldreligious rightin a new guise? Palin could prove to be McCain's salvation, and a necessary gamble given his own weaknesses. (Funny, McCain's people were saying the other day that the choice of Biden pointed up Obama's weaknesses, and did not compensate for them...) But the audacity (nice word) of his choice could also smack of desperation.My sense is that the positives balance out the negatives, yetMcCain can't afford a "wash" in terms of gains and losses.Palin will reassure the Religious Right, and surely draw in those voters, especially Christian "soccer moms," who see her as "one of us," only with a hockey stick. But with all voters growing in their suspicion ofthe use of religion in politics, as shown by the latest Pew poll, Palin's best weapon may be firing blanks.PS: I wasn't sure, but it's pronounced PAY-lin.We'll all know that soon enough.(Cross-posted with Progressive Revival.)

David Gibson is the director of Fordham’s Center on Religion & Culture.

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