Brand new TV spot - set to run on “national cable” - from the Obama campaign today takes dead aim at McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

But it doesn’t hit hard over Palin’s lack of experience. Rather, the ad tries to lump together Palin and McCain as one in the same on most issues and hardly the “maverick” that McCain wants to portray her as to voters. Obama slams the entire ticket as an extension of George W. Bush.

Just part of the time-honored tradition of trashing your opponent’s running mate selection  ASAP…

Script and video below.

VO: Well, he’s made his choice.

But, for the rest of us…

…there’s still no change.

McCain doesn’t get it, calling this broken economy “strong.�

Wants to keep spending ten-billion-a-month in Iraq.

And votes with George Bush ninety-percent of the time.

So, while this may be his running-mate… (VISUAL: McCain/Palin)

…America knows this is John McCain’s agenda. (VISUAL: McCain/Bush)

And we can’t afford four more years of the same.

BO: I’m Barack Obama. And I approve this message.

An interesting article from a Raleigh, NC TV station with instant reaction to the Palin announcement from a few North Carolina voters. Remember that NC is a new battleground thanks to Obama’s primary success and intensive ground effort there. These innocuous quips are important.

Looks like undecideds are surprised and have yet to form an opinion, Republicans are warily behind the move, and Hillary voters - who McCain expected to convert in droves with a woman on the ticket -  aren’t about to back McCain.

Republican John McCain’s announcement Friday that first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be his vice presidential running mate has local voters talking.

GOP supporter Jerod Johnson, a teacher, hasn’t had a chance to form an opinion on Palin.

“I got to read up and figure out who she is and where she stands. McCain’s been out there, but I have no idea who she is,� Johnson said.Palin, 44, was the mayor of the 9,800-resident city of Wasilla and has been governor less than two years. She is the first Republican woman on a presidential ticket.

Undecided voter Brian O’Haver said the McCain/Palin ticket gives him something to think about.

“I don’t know much about her, so I can’t form an opinion yet, but I thought it was an interesting move,� O’Haver said.

Locals who supported Clinton are questioning McCain’s motives for naming Palin to the GOP ticket.

“I thought he was trying to pull a fast one, trying to get the women that were in Hillary’s camp,� former Clinton supporter Midge Silverman said. The decision to include Palin has not swayed Silverman to support the GOP ticket.

Judy Davis, another former Clinton supporter, said she was not supporting the GOP ticket because of Palin either.

“Not in the least. I don’t go for that kind of ploys,� Davis said.

Ron Fournier of AP has an excellent piece on how McCain’s pick - a “risky choice” - of the uber-inexperienced Palin renders his campaign’s consistent charges of drastic inexperience on Obama’s part useless. Useless!

John McCain’s risky choice of Gov. Sarah Palin gives him a running mate who doubles down on his maverick image, may appeal to “hockey moms” and other women, and counters Barack Obama’s aura of new-generation change. But he may have undercut his best attack on the Democrat. 

If Obama is an empty suit, as McCain has suggested, is Palin suited for the Oval Office herself?

She is younger and less experienced than the first-term Illinois senator, and brings an ethical shadow to the ticket. A governor for just 20 months, she was two-term mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 6,500 where the biggest issue is controlling growth and the biggest civic worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod dog-mushing race.

“On his 72nd birthday, is this really the one-heartbeat-away he wants to put in the White House?” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the No. 3 Democrat in the House. “What does this say about his judgment?”

It says that McCain wanted to add a reform-minded politician to his ticket, and an abortion opponent to boot. It says he needs more women to back him over Obama, who just welcomed a passel of Hillary Clinton voters into his fold but remains shaky with white males. And, finally, it’s a recognition of how vulnerable McCain is despite polls showing it’s close.

He put his money down on a darkhorse to try to change the race.

Ambinder has some fresh reaction to McCain’s running mate choice from a few very concerned Republican strategists and insiders. These are no doubt very wise folks, because they express the doubts that make Palin a colossal gamble and a likely mistake that will haunt McCain for the rest of the campaign.

A few are cautiously optimistic that it’ll turn out OK, but most of the strategists and consultants I’ve spoken to, e-mailed with, or read/watched are struggling with it. They expect her to have a good week… and then to crash and burn when she hits the campaign trail as scrutiny catches up with her.

Some of these strategists are close to those Republicans who were vetted but not picked, but many of them aren’t.   “It’s like playing poker blind,” one strategist said. Another e-mailed: “Obama’s lack of readiness was THE only way to win.”  When these Republicans ask the McCain campaign for guidance, all they hear back is: “She’s more experienced than Obama is.”

Don’t try to gauge the success of the pick y listening to the conservative talking heads or reading the like-minded commentators. They all love it and will proclaim that McCain is now invincible for having bowed to the Right’s collective will. Too bad they don’t exist in reality…

One thing that the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate didn’t lack was overall chatter about the selection - from all sides.

The Obama campaign initially came out with a harsh jab at McCain’s decision that focused on Palin’s extreme lack of experience and the old “heartbeat away” line.

Bill Burton said the following immediately after the pick was made.

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Gov. Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same.”

This small statement condenses what the Obama team will be going after on Palin and McCain’s judgment. They have the ammo to rebut the claim that she’s a “maverick” like McCain. Her limited governmental record  will be touted as dangerous to be the country’s number two leader. And the overriding mission in all of this is to tag McCain as old and exercising that poor judgment in selecting such an inexperienced politician to be a “heartbeat away” from the presidency.

In what is probably a wise move, Obama himself actually scolded Burton for this blistering official statement and  expressed disappointment in the “hair-trigger” response from his own staff.

“I think that, uh, you know, campaigns start getting these, uh, hair triggers and, uh, the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments,” he said, according to the pool report, apparently criticizing his staff for going overboard, as he did occasionally in the primary.

He was referring to a more gracious statement of congratulations he issued later with Biden, which he then reiterated.

“I haven’t met her before. She seems like a compelling person … with a terrific personal story. “I’m sure that she will help make the case for Republicans, unfortunately the case is more of the same, and so ultimately John McCain is at the top of the ticket.”

This is nothing more than a calculated move to splash cold water on the McCain campaign’s plans to play up Burton’s initial response while continuing the image of Obama as a post-partisan nice guy who acts as if he merely disagrees with the Republicans - he doesn’t hate them. Some points, some points…

PB talked to McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds this afternoon  about the Palin selection, and he wasn’t about to cut Obama any slack.

Bounds gave the standard defense of Palin and said that she did have experience (”city council…head of an oil and gas company”) that made her able to lead and be a strong VP. Bounds indicated that Palin possesses the “right kind of experience” that made her McCain’s perfect running mate.

Bounds also ripped into Obama. He noted that Palin’s limited experience is still above and beyond Obama’s terms in the Illinois and U.S. Senate: “She (Palin) has run something more than her mouth” - an obvious reference to Obama’s rhetorical, er, skills. And Bounds said the McCain campaign thinks it “audacious” for their Obama counterparts to criticize Palin on her record.

As for how voters will receive the new running mate, Bounds thinks that, with her strong background and grounded lifestyle, “Americans will come to respect her.”

John McCain suddenly turned into the unpredictable maverick again - if just for a day - with his shocking and highly questionable pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, announced to a packed house (!!) in Dayton earlier today. The McCain campaign managed to keep the press guessing and the exact name somewhat under wraps until just before the big event. Palin wasn’t even considered as the name to be unveiled today until a mysterious jet landed in Dayton fresh from Anchorage - and still the media didn’t fully buy it.

But enough about the nuts and bolts of how the unveiling went down; how about the sheer desperation and blatantly strained judgment that McCain has shown with this pick? Palin has been embraced by the conservative base with her pro-life, NRA member, straight talk against liberals “record” - yes, about that record. THERE IS NONE.

Palin is a golden story with an eclectic past and a real down-to-earth demeanor and lovely family (her kids are named Trig, Track, Bristol, and Willow).  She has a chance at history being another female running mate and softens the edge of a crusty McCain to some degree.

She also is an attempt from the campaign at rebutting Obama’s choke hold on change by bringing in someone who is so far outside the D.C. beltway that it took that infamous Gulfstream nine hours to get to Dayton, Ohio today. No quick commutes to schmooze with lobbyists who are still a  few hours to the East, that’s for sure.

But will voters really feel comfortable watching McCain win the election as a 72-year-old and be accompanied by a prospective Vice President (heartbeat away…) whose only real governmental experience is under two years leading the most isolated state in the union? You could make a case that perhaps she has never even been abroad (we don’t know). And McCain expects Palin to be accepted by swing voters as a person ready to step in to the number two slot in our fine federal government? That is a serious gamble.

Besides the clear play for conservatives (that’s too obvious), two things jump out at you about this selection. The first is that it’s a clear signal from the McCain campaign that age and JMac’s long history in Washington are potential problem areas ahead. Palin was the freshest face and least D.C.-connected Veep candidate among McCain’s short list of contenders.

Second, Republicans  - and McCain - are very aware of the stain that Dick Cheney left on the VP position and the dmage he has done to the GOP cause. His team must have looked at the polls and seen something there that indicated voter wariness about the power of any potential VP and a sense that Republicans were becoming the party of scary old men.

One segment of the country that has no problem with the pick are conservatives. The Republican base is ecstatic that McCain at least appeared to be listening to their cries against Lieberman and Ridge and taking their collective voice into consideration for a key moment in the campaign.

McCain may not admit that the Right pushed him into this, but  leaping at such a gamble has n other explanation. McCain really wanted Joe Lieberman or Tim Ridge at his side. He’s been tossing out their names as running mate material since the primary and consistently pushed them into greater roles in his campaign as a way of bolstering their credibility with Republicans. Conservatives never bought it, though, and McCain’s advisers were somehow able to wrangle in his independent streak and convince him that going bold for the conservatives was the only way to, well, win.

That’s the eye-opening part about the Palin decision. It is a huge gamble and a clear sign of desperation from the campaign after the successful Dem convention and their party unification. Her “record” will get skewered forever and voters may get scared away by such an inexperienced person being a heartbeat away. But McCain’s team still believe that this choice gives them the best chance to win in November.

The last deciding factor in any presidential running mate choice is how much it increases a candidate’s chances at winning the ultimate prize.  Camp McCain looked at the options, ran the numbers - and still came away with Palin. They felt they needed to rock the campaign boat considerably and rally the GOP base around them in order to overcome Obama’s huge post-Denver bounce.

So it came down to a tiny-state governor with less than two years on the job and only a decade of local experience before that. Wow…

Fresh reports from various news outlets and other sources have Romney out of the mix for McCain’s Veep lost - but he will be in Dayton today for what Andre Mitchell calls a “talent show” for running mate race losers.

Romney out: Palin in?

No contrary reports yet to the flying rumors that the AK Gov. is McCain’s final choice. And reports have her confirmed in Dayton. Is this it?

Somewhat lost among the spectacle of Obama’s acceptance speech last night is the big even for John McCain this afternoon. The GOP nominee will unveil his running mate in an anticipated event at a half-full arena. McCain will unveil the Veep and then commence a pre-convention tour with him/her  through Pennsylvania and other battleground states.

The CW has changed dramatically since last night in the McCain Veepstakes. Breaking news this morning has Tim Pawlenty confirming to the press that he won’t be traveling to Dayton for the McCain event and that it is “fair” to say that he won’t be the final choice. This after Pawlenty fever had swept through the GOP and the media, causing many to peg the Minnesota Governor as the last man standing. Not quite…

Joe Lieberman has also been taken down  a few notches in the Veepstakes. His chances were always more in the realm of wild card, but the buzz around his name was palpable this week. No confirmation, but there are indications that Joe won’t be in Ohio and that he may have been off the short list weeks ago.

Two final names that have everyone going crazy this morning are Mitt Romney (of course) and the darkest of horses- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.  Romney will be in Dayton regardless of the VP outcome today.

Meanwhile, Palin is reported to have flown all the way from Anchorage on a private Gulfstream with her two children, landing at a small airport just outside of - gasp! - Dayton. Smaller airport, more secrecy/less press.

Is McCain really going to gamble with a virtually unknown governor from the wilderness of Alaska (of all places…) who has some ethics concerns to combat Obama-Biden? It does give him a boost with women, possibly luring away some Hillary voters. And it causes headaches for the Dems in trying to go after the ticket: They certainly can’t hit Palin hard without appearing as unduly mean and tough on a woman. It could be a solid plus.