John McCain's choice of the former Miss Wasilla, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is downright insulting to every American, but especially to women.

It is a calculated Karl Rovian move designed for one thing and one thing only: political expediency. The backroom boys sat around and apparently came to the conclusion that they needed a woman, any woman, to appeal to the disaffected supporters of Hillary Clinton's candidacy. It is tokenism at its most extreme. There are plenty of women who are fully qualified for the vice presidency, but Sarah Palin is not one of them.

The very idea that McCain -- age 72, with serious medical problems -- would put a person so poorly qualified within a heartbeat of the presidency is just plain ludicrous. The woman has admitted she knows little or nothing about Iraq and there is no evidence that she has any better knowledge of the economy. It's as if the political gods are playing some kind of sick joke on us: McCain says he knows nothing about the economy; he's chosen a running mate who knows nothing about the war in Iraq. At a time when the country faces a serious energy crisis, Palin has aligned herself with the interests of big oil.

Although baptized a Roman Catholic as a baby, she was re-baptized as an adult into an independent "Assembly of God" church, a sect on the outer fringes of fundamentalist extremism. She is vehemently anti-abortion, favors a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages and favors the teaching of "creationism" in our public schools. She is precisely the kind of divisive candidate we do not need in these perilous times when all efforts should be focused on healing the near-fatal wounds both spiritual and economic inflicted upon our beloved country by eight years of Republic mis-rule.

Once again, McCain's judgment is called into question and once again, he is just plain wrong. Let us hope the political pundits will have the courage to take their gloves off and call this for what it is. Let us hope that the hypocrisy of this decision will be exposed. I'm confident there's more to her troubled past than the brother-in-law incident; I truly believe Sarah Palin herself will explain just how unqualified she is to be vice president ... if she's just given enough rope to hang herself.

McCain's decision makes a mockery of his campaign's efforts to brand Sen. Barack Obama as "inexperienced." Palin is a journalism graduate of the university of Idaho; Obama is an honors graduate of the Harvard Law School. Palin was elected Miss Wassila; Obama worked to improve conditions in an impoverished South Chicago neighborhood; Palin was elected mayor of Wassilla, population 6,000; Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate; Palin is governor of Alaska; Obama is a U.S. senator.

More important, Obama's judgment has once again proven to be far superior to John McCain's. It was Obama, not McCain, who said we need more troops in Afghanistan. It was Obama, not McCain, who said we need a timetable for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Both of these decisions once vehemently opposed by the Republicans, are now public policy.

And, finally, it was Obama who chose as his runningmate a person with vast experience in foreign policy who is fully capable stepping in as president at any time. Miss Wassilla as president. Think about it.