Predictions are always risky because we the people never have the inside scoop.  But I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that John McCain will nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate.  At least, that's what I would do. 

If the McCain team is consistent, as they seem to have been for the last several weeks, appointing a woman makes sense.  They have been running ads criticizing Obama for not choosing Hillary as his running mate.  Well, what better way to follow that up than appointing a woman?  They're basically telling Hillary voters that they got cheated by Obama's choice of an old white man. By choosing a woman McCain would essentially close the deal by saying "you feel cheated that Hillary - the woman - wasn't chosen by your candidate... well, now you have a woman - on my ticket."  

The McCain strategy this week seems to point straight to a female choice.  Sarah Palin for whatever reason, has been the only woman on the horizon for the last several months so if I had to bet, I'd say she just might be the choice.  And it would do several things for the McCain campaign:

• It would add to his "maverick" credentials
• It would show he's progressive and not afraid of change
• It would add excitement
• It would definitely be the talking point the day after the Democratic convention - robbing team Obama of any post-convention glow
• It would shore up his support among conservatives

The only drawback I can think of is that Palin is extremely inexperienced on the national stage.  Although she has far more experience as an executive than Obama does!  She'll be a bit of a risk if he chooses her because it's unknown how she might perform on the campaign trail.  I watched some videos of her last night and she was a good speaker from what I could see, but not overly impressive.  She had a "small-town" air about her.  No doubt because she comes from a very small and fairly isolated state.  But that small-town air belied a genuineness that I'm not seeing on the Democratic side.  For all their talk, the Democrats are still all talk.  Palin is a woman who has lived what Democrats only pay lip service to. 

Another reason she makes a good choice is it could goad Team Obama into ridiculing her inexperience!  They've been especially susceptible to goading lately.  And if they dare bring that up then it will be a slam dunk for Republicans to talk about how their "bottom" of the ticket has more experience than their "top".  

In the best of all worlds, imagine the political hay McCain could make if he picked a conservative black woman!  That would pretty much cover all your minority-politics bases!

Palin would be my choice... it'll be interesting to see if McCain agrees. 

Oh, and one other prediction.  The media will pounce on it and criticize McCain for choosing someone with little experience.  They'll say he is undercutting his campaign theme that it's experience that counts.  At the same time they'll rarely if ever point out that Biden totally undercuts Obama's campaign theme in several ways:  1. that Obama will bring change - Biden is a man who has been around Washington forever; 2. Obama has good judgment - Biden was thrown out of the 1988 race for president for committing plagiarism and is well-known for making bizarre statements.  It's not exactly a testament to Obama's judgment that he would choose such a man - especially in the dangerous times in which we live.  A few slips from Biden could give foreign enemies the wrong idea; 3. Obama says he has always opposed the Iraq war.  However, Biden supported it.  Obama's campaign is based on the assertion that he may not have experience but he has good judgment.  So what kind of judgment does that show?  If he thinks the Iraq war was wrong from the beginning, why would he choose a running mate who thought it was right? 

We'll see if the media is objective enough to bring any of this up.  If McCain had chosne a Biden, they would surely pummel him with it from now until election day.