Senator Barack Obama recently went through the same vice presidential picking process as Senator John McCain, with the same question going through his head: how do I capture women voters? Obama had a few advantages going into the mix and a few disadvantages; primarily, he is a Democrat (good) and he beat Senator Hillary Clinton (bad).

John McCain had his own pros and cons. On the one hand, he didn’t spend the last 18 months fighting and winning his party’s nomination againt Hillary Clinton, the most qualified and able woman candidate to seek the highest office in recent memory. That gave him the advantage over Barack Obama. On the other hand, he is a Republican and even though Ronald Reagan won 56% of the women’s vote in 1984 when Geraldine Ferraro was running, that was in a good climate for Republicans.

The one thing that Barack Obama evidently understood, though, that John McCain has flubbed is that women were flocking to Hillary Clinton, just as blacks did to Barack Obama, because they believed in her ability to lead. She was qualified. Hillary Clinton was no Geraldine Feraro just as Barack Obama was no Reverand Al Sharpton. And Governor Sarah Palin’s no Hillary Clinton.

So Barack Obama couldn’t pick Governor Kathleen Sebelius, no matter how much she might have balanced his strengths and weaknesses. Executive experience. Working across party lines. A transplanted politician, from Ohio to Kansas. The whole Kansas thing. A calm, measured, composed demeanour. A two-term governor. The heartland. The south.

Kathleen Sebelius would have been perfect, but for one thing – she didn’t seem to have as much experience, arguably talent, and ability as Hillary Clinton. Her pick would have been an insult to Clinton’s 18 million voters, a bald pander and vote grab placing identity politics over substance. Directly the kind of sexism that Clinton experienced from various media personalities as she fought her way from January through to June, even onward as she made what in retrospect now proved to be wise moves towards catharsis and persuasion of her voters back into the Democratic fold.

So Barack Obama went for experience, someone with whom he could work, a resume that was at least as good as if not a good chunk better than Hillary Clinton’s, who is good on the stump and will still complement Obama’s abilities. In fact, he also passed over others whose image or ability to befriend Obama might have exceeded Senator Joe Biden’s but still could have been seen as an insult to the abilities or vote getting pull of a Hillary Clinton – such as Sentaor Evan Bayh, Governor Tim Kaine, and Governor Bill Richardson.

So in the end, Sarah Palin, a younger, prettier, but just as inexperienced Republican version of Geraldine Ferraro, will only remind voters of why they supported Hillary Clinton in the first place. It will dig John McCain deeper into a hole that he’s put himself since he started to reverse his maverick ways and seek the Republican nomination. John McCain used to be a truth teller and policy iconoclast. He’s ably transformed his image into a conservative standard bearer who wants to retain the presidency at any cost to his place in history.