Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

by DemFromCT [courtesy of Daily Kos]

The news will soon be about Gustav, but in the meantime, more about the next-door-neighbor who got tapped for VP so McCain could be change-lite...

Jonathan Capehart:

But this is one mystifying Hail Mary pass by the senator from Arizona...

Palin is a darling of the Republican conservative base. That McCain is still trying to get a deeply skeptical base to love him on the eve of his nominating convention spells trouble.

Charles Krauthammer: I'm batshit insane, and even I don't get it.

The McCain campaign is reveling in the fact that Palin is a game changer. But why a game changer when you’ve been gaining? To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful "Is he ready to lead" line of attack seems near suicidal.

Dan Gerstein: Do I get points for getting "beauty queen" and "naked" near each other?

In picking an unknown, untested, half-a-term woman governor from Alaska to be his running mate, John McCain is following in a long line of reckless men who have rolled the dice for a beauty queen. Except in this case, McCain is taking one of the biggest, boldest gambles in modern American political history.

He's betting his presidency on a naked political play for holdout Hillary supporters and other female swing voters - and hoping that a large share of these predominantly pro-choice women will ignore or overlook Palin's staunch pro-life, anti-stem cell views.

Marc Ambinder:

I cannot overestimate the degree to which Republican political strategists were stunned by the pick.  

A few I spoke with or e-mailed were optimistic, using phrases like "brilliant" and "game-changing."  One GOP strategist who has worked with Palin says she's coated with Teflon  -- "attack at your peril."  She "renews McCain's maverick credentials."  One person close to Romney said she "looks like a real reformer. She's done what Obama's talked about."

A few are cautiously optimistic that it'll turn out OK, but most of the strategists and consultants I've spoken to, e-mailed with, or read/watched are struggling with it. They expect her to have a good week... and then to crash and burn when she hits the campaign trail as scrutiny catches up with her.

Jimmy Orr/Geo Beach: Alaskans like the Palin choice. Of course, we have no idea about what the hell the rest of the country is up to. But we like our morning in the sun.

Anne Sutton:

Alaska Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Coumbe called it an "odd pick," given the fact that Palin is under investigation by the state Legislature.

Lawmakers this month hired an investigator to look into recent allegations that Palin fired the state's public safety commissioner after members of her family and staff unsuccessfully tried to pressure him into dismissing a trooper involved in a messy divorce with Palin's sister.

John Heilemann: Seven Ways Obama’s Speech Succeeded, and Why It Wasn’t Perfect

Dana Milbank: I'll overcompensate for actually being a bit awed by Mile High. I'll be Maureen Dowd, only not as clever.

Debra Saunders: When Obama said "bitter", I think he meant me. I mean, I know he's for real, but damn.

LA Times: Bush, and McCain, BFF.

But it turns out that Bush himself has not spoken to McCain since May, when the two met briefly for 14 seconds on a tarmac. And before that, not since March, when the two walked out onto the colonnade of the White House to announce the president's endorsement.