Sep. 2--WASHINGTON -- If selecting a running mate is a real test of a presidential candidate's judgment, then John McCain's decision to name Sarah Palin as his choice reveals a poor sense of astuteness and serves to underline his desperate political expediency.

Beyond the much taunted image of a maverick, his critics argue McCain's decision has once again exposed his opportunistic tendencies.

They draw an unflattering profile of a spoiled son of a Navy admiral who misused the good name of his political guru and predecessor in the Senate, the late Barry Goldwater, and who callously left his first wife and children to marry into a $100 million fortune.

And this time, by choosing Palin, he betrayed all of that which he preached over the last 18 months -- even 18 years.

"Barack Obama can start writing his inauguration speech," wrote me an informed friend the night McCain held his first appearance with Governor Palin.

I am not sure I would go that far.

But I am no longer sceptical about an Obama victory in light of McCain's decision to offer the vice presidency to the unknown and inexperienced governor of Alaska merely because she is a conservative woman.

If the McCain-Palin list survives the next two months with no dramatic surprises, the Republican nominee will suffer in the polls because of his hasty decision.

The politics behind the decision is so "transparent" and "cynical", that it left most female commentators around the country dismayed, bitter, an even insulted.

Calling Palin his "soul mate" has only added insult to injury.

Women might pay attention to the nomination, one commentator wrote, but they won't give her the vote.

Palin who ran the Miss Alaska beauty contest has been ridiculed as a lucky bimbo.

She is seen as the "Miss Congeniality" governor who held her hair up and put on reading glasses to look serious.

Her anti-choice position on abortion will end up distancing most women who supported Hillary Clinton.

So why did McCain choose the young governor?

Well, she reflects will for fresh change on the part of the old McCain; she is popular in her state of Alaska especially after taking on corrupted officials -- some from within her own Republican party.

She is an ardent supporter of offshore oil drilling which appears to be supported by three out of every four Americans in a year when energy has become an important election issue.

And unlike the other proposed choices, Palin is a Christian social conservative that appeals to most of the hardcore evangelical base of the Republican Party.