KEY POINTS:
DAY 1: Sarah "Barracuda" Palin, an unknown, gun-toting, Moose burger-eating, old-boy-bashing, popular governor of Alaska is chosen as Republican John McCain's surprise running mate.
Depending on one's politics, commentators spew either delight or horror.
Entire episodes of The Simpsons are written with storylines less satire-worthy than hers.
Her
husband is known as "The First Dude". Her son is headed off to Iraq after enlisting on September 11. Her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Her last job was as mayor of a three-stoplight town. Her parents were Caribou hunting when they heard their daughter had been nominated to the second highest office of the largest economy in the world.
Rush Limbaugh, a delighted US conservative radio commentator tells listeners that, "Palin equals guns, babies, Jesus ... Obama just lost blue-collar, white democrat voters in Pennsylvania and other states."
In one fell swoop, the Evangelical, religious right are whisked back into the fold. Palin's candidacy giving them the conservative anchor that McCain hadn't yet been able to hold down.
The Republican convention not only gets fresh adrenaline injected into the campaign, but also now has God on its side.
Days after Hillary quips that McCain and Bush are twins headed for The Twin Cities [Minneapolis/St Paul], a hurricane keeps away one of the most unpopular Presidents in history from his opening night convention speech, literally distancing the two men.
Pass the Caribou hotdogs and praise the Lord. Who could possibly write this stuff? As Bart would say, Cowabunga! No matter what you think of American politics, it doesn't get more entertaining than this.
Until Day 2, when the story's fizz fizzles into a truer narrative. In Governor Palin's second day as nominee, she is booed when she refers to Hillary in a Pittsburgh speech. Some audience members leave as she is speaking.
Sarah Palin can't fill even one trouser leg of Hillary Clinton's pants suits, former supporters argue. Who is McCain kidding? Meanwhile, other women applaud, re-energised, proud to put her story on the side of a McCain vote.
Where is this story headed? Has McCain pulled an inspired tactical move to attract disenfranchised Hillaryheads and those sitting on the socially conservative divide or has he inflicted an unnecessary campaign limp?
Place your bets, and give the man credit for doubling down without batting an eyelash. He just grabbed back his maverick mantel, stamping the Republican ticket with the change moniker too.
So who wins the My Veep is Better than Yours game? On the face of it, when Obama picked Joe Biden, creating the "Bojo" ticket, it made sense. Biden fills the foreign policy experience that Obama lacks. Tick. But what Biden doesn't lasso is the ability to bring in an undecided "purple state" or widen the ticket's blue-collar base.
That is something Obama badly needs, even if Biden is hilariously trying to convince Pennsylvania that he's their homeboy, despite being a Delaware senator since the Stone Age.
Ultimately, in a wildly diverse country like America, US elections are about broadening one's base. If you measure what a vice-presidential candidate can bring to the office, Biden trounces Palin. But if you measure what that candidate is bringing into the polling booth, McCain's choice has the potential to be a strategic stunner.
If - and here is where we wait for our beautifully wrought drama to unfold - Sarah Palin proves she can rise past her moose burger caricature and simply not mess up, McCain may hit a big payout.
Stay tuned, sports fans. When these two vice-presidential candidates go head to head in a debate, Biden, as senior statesman, has the potential to chew Palin up alive.
But Biden can also come off as arrogant. Americans love an underdog, especially one that might beat the odds and stare down the glare of the world stage. If she just emerges without major flubs, she wins.
With that kind of Rocky of Alaska storyline, voters may eat it up. Why sweat any of this? No one really casts their vote for a vice-president. This time though, it may be different with McCain being the oldest candidate ever to lead a ticket.
If history is any guide, she has a one in three chance of becoming President because of presidential death or assassination.
What the choice of Sarah Palin really points to is an important window into John McCain's decision making style: gutsy, high risk, spontaneous - one voter's salve to another's hives. He'd only met her once before.
So read the tea leaves any way you want. In John McCain, America may be proffering an insulting loose cannon, or an inspired strategist who really is committed to changing the face of politics as usual.
Tune in tomorrow.
