John McCain's decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate is sending shockwaves through the blogosphere.  I personally enjoyed reading Dan Schnur's take on the pick, where he breaks down the pros and cons and what the McCain campaign was probably thinking as they made this decision.

My friends and co-workers weren't surprised to hear that I didn't get any sleep last night.  As the GOTV Director for the county party I think I have a good sense of how passionate our activists/volunteers feel about this election.  We are putting together a very ambitious GOTV effort, so we've been out there pounding the pavement for a while now.  While it hasn't been difficult to find enough volunteers to get the job done, there has been a sense of "duty" that's been associated with most of our activists' sense of volunteerism lately.  Sure, there are some die hard McCain-iacs that have been excited since the day he won the primary, but for the most part it's safe to say that the majority of our activists have been patiently waiting for McCain's VP before deciding to what extent they would be working on behalf of the ticket.  Thus, for the interests of doing my job well, I have been anxiously waiting to hear who McCain's VP would be.  After all, it's safe to say that if McCain would have picked Joe Lieberman or a pro-choice candidate, then our job would have instantly become a lot more challenging.  

For those of us who pulled an all-nighter last night, it was a dramatic evening.  It began with the possibilities (in my head) of: Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Joe Lieberman, or a surprise pick.  As the night progressed we started hearing reports that Romney was no longer headed to Dayton, which instantly crushed my excitement; not because I was a huge Romney fan, but because I knew that the activists/volunteers would be energized if Mitt was picked.  With that said, I began to worry.  Hours later we started hearing reports that it wouldn't be Pawlenty either.  At this point I had a minor freak out.  I was already thinking of ways to build enthusiasm for the McCain/Lieberman ticket among our volunteers.  That task would be as challenging as building excitement for a Republican candidate in the middle of San Francisco (you need a George Andrews for that, which fortunately we do).

As the sun rose, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel.  We began hearing reports that McCain might pick a surprise candidate.  At this point I didn't really care whom: as long as it wasn't Lieberman, I would be happy.

You can read the rest of the post here.