Sarah Barracuda

With the Rasmussen poll showing that Barack has a bump of 4 points, up from a tie yesterday, the McCain campaign has made a move that should nip the growth of that bump in the bud - the selection today of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

With a hurricane on its way to the gulf coast, today's announcement just might be all McCain gets to have for a convention. But the news of Palin provides compensation.

This grabs the news cycle away from Barack's concert last night at the Rezko Center, and injects a bit of history into to the GOP campaign.

Here are Palin's liabilities. First, inexperience. She was the mayor of a tiny city, and she's been governor for less than two years. She also comes from a state that is currently racked with ethics issues in the GOP, most notably the corruption trial of Senator Ted Stevens, due to start in September.

In addition, Palin has her own troubles - whether she intervened in the career of a state trooper who had been her brother in law.

Aides to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pressured the Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper who was divorcing her sister and fighting for custody of her nephew, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin, a Republican, says there were "at least two dozen calls from her staff members" to state police officials about Trooper Mike Wooten.

The governor denied allegations that Public Safety Director Walt Monegan was removed from office because he wouldn't fire Wooten, but she acknowledged that the calls didn't look good.

"The individual inquiries taken by themselves are one thing. Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate; however, the serial nature of the contacts understandably could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction," Palin tells reporters, according to KTUU-TV.

McCain made the calculation that the upside would override these issues. And the upsides are many. Palin is young, at 44, she's the mother of five children, the last of which was born with Down Syndrome in April. The fact that she and her husband decided to have the child anyway will likely make her a hero of the conservative Republican voters.

Trig arrived about a month early and has Down syndrome, the governor confirmed. Testing during early pregnancy revealed the condition. Palin said she was sad at first but they now feel blessed that God chose them. The couple has lots of family support, she said.

More good news:

Palin is a conservative who only last month vetoed 13 percent of the state's proposed budget for capital projects. The cuts, the Anchorage Daily News said, "may be the biggest single-year line-item veto total in state history."

She's feisty - having been a whistleblower against a member of her own party:

State law barred Palin from speaking out publicly about ethical violations and corruption. But she was vindicated later in 2004 when Ruedrich, who'd been reconfirmed as state chairman, agreed to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking state ethics laws. She became a hero in the eyes of the public and the press, and the bane of Republican leaders.

And how about this!

Gov. Palin grew up in Wasilla, where as star of her high school basketball team she got the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” for her fierce competitiveness. She led her underdog team to the state basketball championship. Palin also won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest, in which she was named Miss Congeniality, and went on to compete in the Miss Alaska pageant.

It takes a few minutes for Glenn Beck to get to Palin, but if you have time it's a chance to see her in action.