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Sarah Palin will add some key strengths to John McCain’s campaign for President.

The surprise choice of Sarah Palin, the current governor of Alaska, as the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican ticket, was another of a string of independent, almost wacky choices of John McCain. John McCain is definitely his own man with his own opinions notwithstanding that he decided to affiliate with the Republican Party. Sarah Palin is indeed more Republican than John McCain, and will help McCain solidify certain traditional bases of the Republican Party, although there were certainly stronger candidates available that could have made deeper inroads in key states and with key constituencies.

Mrs. Palin will play strong with religious conservatives, and will solidify that constituency for John McCain. There was some doubt about whether those conservatives would choose not to vote in this election, even though that might tip the balance in key states to the democrats. Mrs. Palin should help McCain in key swing states with religious conservatives, particularly in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and perhaps even Virginia and parts of the south.

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Mrs. Palin should also appeal to women, a constituency to whom Mr. McCain had no direct appeal. With Hilary Clinton trying to turn her appeal to Barack Obama, and direct a large base of loyal women voters to him, Mrs. Palin could be the fatal wedge that divides the women vote and tips the election to McCain. In this regard, the choice of Mrs. Palin could be instrumental in winning this election. One question though is whether a different Republican woman could have done this same thing; someone like Kay Bailey-Hutchison of Texas, or even a wild long-shot like Linda Chavez (who might have been attacked because of her hiring of an illegal immigrant to work in her household).

Mrs. Palin does not help McCain with minority voters, although it is unclear how the large Hispanic vote will break in this election. Mr. McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which sought to award citizenship to any illegal immigrant child who graduated from a U.S. high school and who was enrolled in that school before a certain date. That Act was popular among Hispanic voters, many of whom sympathize with the plight of many hard-working, law-abiding, illegal immigrants. Immigration, however, is not a large issue in this election year so far.

Mrs. Palin complements McCain’s already strong support among military families. Mrs. Palin’s son Track Palin, age 18, enlisted in the Army this year. Mr. McCain’s military experience will serve him well in this election because voters will trust his judgment on commitments of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. His understanding of what it means to be on the ground in a war zone cannot be matched by the democratic candidate or his Vice President candidate, Joe Biden.

Mrs. Palin does come to the campaign with something that should appeal to all voters – a strong commitment to anti-corruption. She battled Frank Murkowski to win the governorship of Alaska in part on a campaign of cleaning up government. Her outsider status will give her credibility in attacking the traditional pork-barrel politics of Washington, and if anyone represents “change”, it is Mrs. Palin. Thus, a key message of the Obama campaign his been somewhat flipped around this election – Obama chose a consummate Washington insider as his running mate, and McCain chose a consummate outsider. McCain can easily intercept the message of “change” and run with it with Sarah Palin as his running mate.

In sum, the selection of Sarah Palin was an independent, unexpected, and some would say inspired choice for a running mate. Might there have been stronger candidates to play to certain constituencies? Yes, but Mrs. Palin will have a lot of purchase among some key constituencies herself, and thus it is not difficult to conclude that the choice of Mrs. Palin will strengthen McCain’s electability.