It's a familiar story: the dutiful mother stands at her husband's side through thick and thin, supports him emotionally, raises his children - only to be cast aside at the height of his prosperity and success for the vapid young thing with nothing going for her but a pretty face.  The children feel betrayed, and turn away from Dad.

If it didn't happen in your family, you know a family where it did.

Supporters of Hillary Clinton are already familiar with this story: Clinton's already been the victim of a philandering husband who's set her aside for a younger woman.  It's already happened in McCain's family, too.  He dumped his first wife like a hot potato after becoming a celebrity upon his return from Vietnam.  He took up with a rich and pretty wife instead.  

Now McCain's done it again, symbolically, with his VP choice.

For some reason McCain thinks that Palin is a good substitute for having Hillary Clinton on a presidential ticket.  A woman is a woman, right?  I predict this will backfire.

Hillary's supporters don't love her because she's a woman.  They love her because she's Hillary: she's smart, independent, funny, rambunctious, and she's got the qualifications.  She's put in her dues, has a law degree from the best law school in the country, and she stands toe to toe with the great politicians of the world.

In 1992 Hillary Clinton said, "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life."  To me, this is one of the defining moments of Clinton's public persona, and I admired her immensely for it.  I suspect her die-hard supporters from the primaries remember this moment too.

Palin won a beauty contest.  She was on the PTA.  She's a minor politician of one of the smallest states in the country.  Quite frankly, she's not fit to lick Hillary Clinton's shoes.  She's no substitute, no replacement: the very idea is an insult to Hillary.

John McCain thinks that, in the minds of Hillary's supporters, she's interchangeable with a young, pretty no-account who wears lots of make-up.  That's the kind of mistake that can only be made by a man who's already left one wife for a younger woman.

But Sarah Palin will remind voters less of Hillary Clinton and more of Monica Lewinsky.  Clinton cannot be so easily replaced.

MSNBC is reporting that John McCain has finally picked his running mate, and that it will be former Republican presidential nominee Robert Dole.

Concern about his image as an older candidate helped solidify McCain's choice.  "He wanted a vice-president that would make him look young and robust," said a top McCain adviser who wished to remain anonymous because he had not yet been authorized to announce the Republican nominee's pick.

The McCain Camp is believe to have chosen a new slogan for the campaign: "McCain/Dole 2008: 150 Years of Experience!"

Said another adviser, "With McCain and Dole speaking together with one voice, terrorists will know America is serious when it says, 'Get off my lawn!'"