Dear Barack: You Have Been Given a Gift

Her name is President Sarah Palin. Please open immediately.

Step One: Get three tough ads on the air. One each day.

Ad #1:
Remember all those clips with John McCain talking about how crucial experience is? You now get a chance to replay those, interspersed with a description of Sarah Palin's "experience."

Ad #2:
Have the narrator set up this little gem, from Governor Palin herself: "What is it exactly that the vice president does all day?" She said this a month ago.

Ad #3:
Have a former Hillary supporter describe Palin's radical anti-choice, pro-gun, Big Oil positions.

Step Two:
Challenge the media to demand some answers from McCain. His entire campaign is predicated on the notion that you're is not "ready to lead." Does he honestly believe Sarah Palin is? If so, ask him to explain why. Just mouthing the platitude isn't enough. Force him to explain, in detail, why she's more qualified than you.

Step Three:
Point out that this decision is the first and most vital indication of John McCain's judgment. It was a test. And he flunked. He made it about politics, not governance.

Step Four:
Have Hillary, or another powerful female, articulate what most women are thinking. That this is a shameless pander that assumes women voters are too stupid to realize that Palin opposes most of what Hillary Clinton has fought for her entire career.

Step Five:
Stress that McCain has given Americans another clear choice. They can have Sarah Palin - a former beauty queen with less than two years as Alaska's governor - across the table from Russian and Iranian leaders. Or they can have Joe Biden. This pick, in other words, not only reflects poorly on McCain's judgment, but reflects wisely on you. You made a serious, presidential choice. McCain staged a hypocritical political stunt.

Hoping you tear that wrapping paper,

Steve