Republican VP pick Palin survives first round of Sunday morning TV political talk shows; McCain announces scaled-back GOP convention

GOP VP pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska survived the first wave of news media scrutiny from Sunday morning political talk shows on the TV networks.

The conclusions from ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX media pundits were:

* Sen. John McCain has put all his chips in the presidential poker game with his choice of Palin. Recent polls are not indicative of the advantage Sen. Barack Obama still has in many battleground states and states that used to be solidly Republican. If Obama turns out young people in November, he wins by a landslide. So McCain had to gamble.

* So far, McCain's high stakes' move has worked in shaking up the contest, throwing the news media overstride and making the advantage Obama once possessed more uncertain.

* McCain has broken Obama's grip on media attention, despite an accepted conclusion that his acceptance speech last Thursday night was super. The Palin pick has dominated media coverage since Friday morning.

* Women will not automatically vote for a McCain/Palin ticket. But many feel some sense of justice in her nomination because Obama did not fairly consider Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his runningmate.

ABC's Cokie Roberts took the media to task for its questioning of Palin's ability to be a vice president and mother. Roberts also has visibly been angry in previous appearances over how Clinton was treated by the media during the primary campaign. That doesn't mean Roberts will vote for McCain/Palin. But her responses show a deep resentment toward a candidate promising change and a media covering it, then treating women with the same disregard. Stay tuned to that issue.

* The potential scandal involving Palin and her handling of the firing of the state of Alaska's public safety commissioner does not appear to be a consequential matter for her VP candidacy. The media is in deep pursuit, however, of a more lasting scandal to pin on her.

* Dem VP pick Joe Biden faces an almost untenable task of how to treat Palin on the campaign trail and in the upcoming VP debate in St. Louis. Does he go to the jugular or does he back off and act polite and gracious? This is the same kind of problem Al Gore faced in 2000 against Bush. Thankfully for Biden, there will be only one VP debate.

* The experience debate cuts both ways. Obama's backers claim the argument no longer works for McCain with his VP pick of an 18-month state governor. She is totally unprepared to one heartbeat away from the presidency. McCain supporters point to another governor from a small, isolated state who was a presidential nominee -- Bill Clinton of Arkansas in 1992.

In my opinion, both sides have faulty arguments. Clinton only won the presidency in 1992 because of Ross Perot's candidacy that claimed 19% percent of the vote. Clinton did not win on the strength of his experience. So that argument by McCain backers won't work.

The issues of Palin's inexperience and McCain's age and health are non-starters. The guy survived five years in the toughest conditions and under the most serious stress as a POW. His mother is deep into her '90s. His skin cancer is under control. I bet he is going to live long enough if he is properly protected by Secret Service and limits his regular handshaking excursions into crowds.

Palin will have time to learn foreign policy expertise from one of the most-experienced pols. Meanwhile on the Democrats' side, a president would have to learn foreign policy from someone over whom he has authority to ignore. Palin has beaten more experienced incumbents before, including a sitting governor in his own party's primary. That's a huge political feat that Democrats should not underestimate. The woman can campaign with the best of 'em -- males and females.

The advanatge on the matter of national security ultimately will lean toward McCain, particularly with Russia now making two Georgian provinces into part of its country and Israel readying a takeout strike if Iran reaches nuclear capability. Meanwhile, Iran has provided longer-range missiles to Hezbollah, giving it the capability of sending rockets deeper into Israel in the event of a takeout strike. This center of uncertainty in the world gives McCain the state of Florida in November and all the South except perhaps Virginia.

This week, the GOP will limit its scope to mostly be a telethon to raise money for New Orleans or whatever place in the nation that takes Hurricane Gustav's biggest blow. McCain, who just made the announcement of the change this afternoon, even may deliver his acceptance speech from the place needing help.

So both campaigns probably will lay low for a week, leaving only 57 short days for you to make your own choice and Sunday morning shows to talk about what you're thinking.