McCain knows how to surprise. Big Baloney had no idea Palin was on his shortlist, thus her selection had to be a snap decision and “insufficiently vetted.”

Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett Packard and now a McCain advisor, says Palin was on the shortlist from early summer. But that not be the biggest head fake writes Tigerhawk.

The received wisdom has been that John McCain selected Sarah Palin to attract women, including those who might have voted for Hillary Clinton had she been the Democratic nominee. I have thought since the weekend — an eternity! — that the received wisdom is wrong. I believe that Sarah Palin will attract male voters, including particularly “Reagan Democrats” who do hard physical work in their jobs, hunt, fish, love sports, fly the flag, believe in American national greatness, and cannot understand why we would not drill for oil anywhere there might be oil, but who are insecure in their economic circumstances and do not trust big business or politicians of either party. Me:

I think the McCain campaign has faked us all out. The Palin nomination was not an attempt to attract disgruntled female supporters of Hillary Clinton; it is a bid for the vote of just about every man in the United States.

Imagine my delight to read that Sarah Palin has emerged from her speech Wednesday night not only more popular than all of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or John McCain, but more popular among men than women:

She earns positive reviews from 65% of men and 52% of women. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows that Obama continues to lead McCain among women voters while McCain leads among men.

Here the press believes that McCain is trying to close the infamous “gender gap,” when in fact the strategy may be to widen it. Indeed, I think that some proportion of Palin’s support among women probably derives from the ridiculous and obviously sexist press coverage of Palin in the five days before her convention speech and her strength in the face of it. Rank speculation: If the left and the press had acted with more dignity and professionalism, respectively, Palin’s gender gap would be even wider than Rasmussen reports.