"Tougher in Alaska" host Geo Beach discusses Sarah Palin

What are they saying way up north in Alaska about Governor Sarah Palin getting the nod as John McCain's running mate?

One person you can bet is never afraid to share his opinion is popular History Channel TV host of "Tougher in Alaska," Geo Beach. Geo, who is also an award-winning columnist, reached out to us this afternoon (morning in Alaska) and offered an exclusive 'Top O' th Planet' dispatch for "The Vote" blog.

Well, get this: He definitely has an opinion. We welcome all opinions here at "The Vote," so don't be shy to give us the opposite point of view, either in a column or a comment. We love it when everybody gets to talk. With that.....here's Geo:

About last night

by Geo Beach

Yesterday on the eve of Barack Obama's official nomination, John McCain sent what the New York Times called "a Valentine" campaign ad to Barack. Today McCain has pulled off the biggest coup of the election season with his selection of Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Um, about last night -- this morning's announcement was Cupid's arrow shot through that heart.

McCain gets a running mate who is young (diminishing the perceived negative of his age), female (snookering Obama for Hillary's hold-outs), executive (to his legislative) and most important, both by her deserved reputation and by the impact of the choice itself, re-establishes McCain's eroded credentials as a genuine maverick candidate. That appeals to the middle voters who will decide the election.

Plus, McCain's choice of Palin achieves what McCain himself can never do -- it took the words right out of Obama's mouth.

The acceptance speech that was so essential to Obama has been filed in the dusty back drawers of political history, as if the text had never been given voice. Media are addicted to the new and the now, and now the Labor Day Weekend will be all I Dream Of Sarah and no echoes of I Had A Dream. Magic.

Forget political analysts -- they were wrong again, saying that veep selections don't make electoral difference.

Obama, agent of change, picks an old white senator who failed at presidential politics twenty years ago. McCain, an old white senator who failed at presidential politics eight years ago, picks a fresh, pro-life, NRA-packing governor from the wild West. Maverick.

And Mom. Who's changing politics today?

Obama's campaign had originally even targeted Alaska -- which hasn't gone Dem in a presidential election since '76 -- as a potential swing state. Their figuring was based on the iconoclastic nature of this state’s electorate. But the cross-over mentality Obama's campaign identified will cut the other way now, with many Democrats here going to Sarah. There's no longer a left wing or a prayer for Alaska going blue.

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