McCain picks Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska

New York Times calls the choice of the anti-abortion, conservative Christian with less than two years in office (she is 44) a "roll of the dice, a gamble that an infusion of new leadership — and the novelty of the Republican party’s first female candidate for vice president — would more than compensate for the risk that Ms. Palin could undercut one of the McCain campaign’s central arguments, their claim that Mr. Obama is too inexperienced to be president."