Today is John McCain's 72nd birthday. And on that day, and with Russia and Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the table, not to mention this country's domestic crisis, he picks as his running mate a thinly experienced, 44-year-old first-term governor and former mayor of a tiny city in Alaska, who has no national security experience, and little governing experience (a glaring deficiency even near-miss McCain staffer Ron Fournier pointed out today.) Beyond undercutting the central plank of his campaign (experience,) doesn't the Palin pick also undermine McCain's larger (anti-Obama) theme of "country first?"

After all, it's clear to any sentient person that McCain didn't pick Palin because it was in the best interests of the country, or because she is prepared to be president, but because he saw it as being in HIS short term best political interest. Not exactly "serving a cause greater than one's self-interest."

And how ironic that Ms. Palin praised Geraldine Ferraro in her introductory speech today, since McCain clearly chose her for the same reason Walter Mondale chose Ferraro: demographic gimmickery and pure politics, something Ferarro has admitted about her own selection in 1984.

Back then, TIME Magazine wrote the following about Ferarro:

"Gerri passes all the tests,"
says Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, a Connecticut Democrat. "She is
photogenic, she is bright, she has worked, she has brought up children,
she is the right age." But is she qualified to be Vice President?
Ferraro is the first to admit that she is being considered mainly
because of her gender, not her qualifications.

(CNN) ... according to the McCain campaign, the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee first met Palin in Washington at a February 2008
National Governors Association meeting. He was immediately impressed
with the 44-year-old rising GOP star, and decided to consider her for
the vice presidential slot.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis had several conversations with
Palin throughout the vetting process, but McCain himself didn't speak
with the Alaska governor until last Sunday — one day after Barack Obama
named Joe Biden to his ticket. It was then McCain reached Palin by
phone while she was at the Alaska State Fair to discuss the possibility
of joining the ticket.

And yet, he's prepared to entrust the country into her hands should anything happen to him -- knowing that he is both a septugenarian and a four-time cancer survivor? As Paul Begala said tonight on poor Campbell Brown's show, if McCain does win, he (and many of the rest of us) will be hiding under our beds and sending him vitamins.

To get to Palin, McCain passed over a number of clearly more qualified candidates, including Mitt Romney, who might have lost the gig because of McCain's houses gaffe (together, they would have 13,) essentially pulling not just a Ferraro, but a female Clarence Thomas out of his hat.

Maybe he flinched at the possibility of being hit by the Obama-Biden team for leading a rich-man's ticket, or maybe he was brushed back by the successful Democratic convention and hard-hitting Obama acceptance speech. Either way, John McCain cannot today be said to have demonstrated the steadiness or judgment he claims his opponent is lacking.  Instead, he has shone himself to be more than willing to put politics, and petty political gamesmanship first, without regard to the impact his decisions could have on the country.