McCain gambling with the Republican nomination

What the hell is John McCain thinking?

The man is gambling with the Republican nomination like a drunken frat boy in Vegas. He chose Sarah Palin as his running mate at the last possible minute, without checking her background credentials and any controversial dirt on her (like Troopergate and her views on Alaskan Independence).

Palin's unmarried 17 year old daughter is pregnant (again?) and is getting a shotgun wedding to 18 year old slack-jawed hockey player Levi Johnston. They're even taking the young man to the Republican National Convention, where they will pray to God he doesn't gaff something up and make the Republicans look like complete imbeciles.

McCain is trying to free himself from the image that he's a carbon copy of George W. Bush. A little controversy might help take the limelight off of him, but is this the right kind of controversy? Should they really be pinning their election hopes on an 18 year old hockey player from Alaska who knocked up the governor's daughter?

Traditionally elections are fought on several key battlegrounds: The economy, the environment, education, health care, freedom, family values and war. So yes, they can preach family values because poor Bristol Palin won't be getting an abortion, and she will be forced to marry young Levi Johnston.

But what about freedom? We're talking about forcing a young woman (still very much a child herself) to have a child and get married against her will? Sure, she says she's okay with it now, but what about two years from now when she's getting a divorce, blaming herself and her parents for forcing her into a decision she didn't make?

Right now Bristol Palin is no better than a slave to the whims of politicians. Her womb has become the proverbial property of the Republican Party. Shouldn't she be allowed to make her own decisions?

And what about Levi Johnston's rights? When he unzipped his pants and got her knocked up, he certainly wasn't thinking about the future of anything. He was thinking about the present and getting his rocks off. He definitely wasn't thinking of how this might effect the young girl's life and any other unforeseen events in the life of the governor's daughter.

Sarah Palin has other issues to contend with too, like the fact she's a devout creationist who honestly believes Adam/Eve really existed and were tossed out of Eden for talking to snakes/eating forbidden fruit. The Alaska legislature is probing whether she forced a safety commissioner to quit, whether she tried to fire a state trooper who was divorcing her sister. Sarah Palin also has alleged ties to the Alaskan Independence party, which wants a vote on leaving the United States.

Alaskan Independence? Now that is certainly controversial and way more important than the Palin family's domestic problems.

In choosing Palin, John McCain gambled that her appeal to the Republican base and to women would outweigh her shortcomings. As more questions arise about his judgment and her suitability, McCain must reassure a broader electorate that she is vice-presidential material... because at this point she's more liability than benefit.