Wow, this has been an exciting morning in Anchorage, Alaska! First thing this morning everybody was talking about the announcement that John McCain was going to announce Sarah Palin has his running mate.

Over the last few months we have heard the rumor flying around that McCain was considering Palin, but I chalked it up to local pride and didn’t actually expect her to receive the invitation! The Republican party is playing this one strategically. They waited to see who Obama would announce as his running mate and then announced Palin as McCain’s running mate the day after Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention. Pure genius. Our office came to a stop as we all crowded into Grant’s office to watch the address in Ohio. Now the news is reporting on nothing else but this political new comer who is essentially replacing Hillary Clinton as the token female candidate. It helps that, outside of the state of Alaska, nobody knows much about Palin. There is a mysterious allure about her and I’m sure it helps that she is young and gorgeous.

We were all hooting and hollering during the speech as she accepted the nomination and then introduced her family. She told the world all about how her husband, Todd, is a commercial fisherman, an oil producer on the North Slope and a world champion snowmachine rider.  She also brought out all her kids except for her son who is in the army and set to deploy to Iraq next month.

It has been really interesting listening to the news after the announcement as political correspondents try to wrap their minds around this one. We all had a good laugh when one news correspondent reported that Palin ”enjoys hunting and fishing and her favorite food is moose stew. I’m sure most people don’t even know what moose stew is.

I even received a phone call from a conservative broker in another office who wanted to know the scoop about Palin. When I confirmed that she is pro-life and refused to abort her most recent baby when learning that he was down syndrom the broker exclaimed, “Oh, it’s over. They are so getting elected.”

The news is already picking up on the fact that she has limited political experience, but so does Obama. Unfortunately for Palin, Obama’s running mate doesn’t appear to have a high chance of keeling over during the next term whereas that is definitely a possibility for McCain.

Either way I am excited to see Palin running with McCain and look forward to the media frenzy that is sure to come. Will the hottest governor be able to salvage the political career of one of the oldest?