I guess 72-year-old John McCain thinks he’s immortal. Why worry – if elected – that old age or cancer might shorten his tenure and leave the nation in the hands of a singularly ill-equipped replacement?

Maybe McCain doesn’t care what happens after he’s gone because he believes he’s not going. The man who says he believes in “Country First,” is telling us the country be damned. Winning is what counts, regardless of the consequences.

For all of his vaunted “experience,” by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, the candidate reveals himself as lacking in something far more important: good judgment.

Will voters, even dyed-in-the-wool fundamentalist Republicans, fall for this con? It’s insulting to think women would vote for McCain just because a woman is on the ticket. But then, it was hard to believe that American voters in general would elect Bush and Cheney not once but twice.

Democrats say a McCain administration would offer more of the same. But by this cavalier choice, the Arizona Senator promises something worse, a dangerous and cynical disregard for the nation’s interests.