It's not that McCain picked a woman hoping that the PUMAs will flock to his banner. Yeah, all 12 of them. Who cares. That's not the issue.
It's that he picked the female (and pretty, which counts) version of Huckabee.
I was scared of Huckabee as veep because I was afraid that picking him would fire up the thus far lukewarm Fundies. Remember, Rove has always claimed that the reason Bush won in 2004 was because the Repubs went hard to draw out Fundies that hadn't voted.
That wasn't an option for McCain. The fundies don't trust him. He'd get the reflexive Republican voting fundies, but the ones that don't always vote? No way.
Except he just got a better chance at them.
Once they learn Palin's story, they're going to love her. Giving birth to a Down's Syndrome child instead of having an abortion? Hell, I'm a pro choice atheist and even I respect her for that. That's an example of living your beliefs that even most Fundies can't come close to matching.
So, this is why this worries me. And, no, I'm no concern troll and you can stuff the "just work harder!" crap because I know all that, thanks :-).
There are lots of things about Palin that help Obama. I understand that. However, I will guarantee that Fundies who were planning on staying home will now vote for McCain/Palin. Guarantee it.
The question is, how many and what difference will it make?
We'd better hope "not many" and "none".'
EDIT: this,courtesy of the fundies over at CBN, is exactly what I'm talking about.