It was just three days ago, when it was reported that Karl Rove had asked Senator Joe Lieberman to take his name off the VP candidates’ list. Republican columnists and operatives were urging John McCain not to pick Lieberman. “His selection would mean GOP civil war” wrote Rich Lowery, one of many to predict such revolt. Annoying the Party with someone who does not always subscribe to Republican beliefs seemed like the last thing McCain needs right now.

Enter Sarah Palin.

A Republican darling? Not in her home state of Alaska, and Phillip Gourevitch of the New Yorker has these highly entertaining quotes to prove it:

Before she was running against him, Sarah Palin-the governor of Alaska and now the Republican candidate for Vice-President of the United States-thought it was pretty neat that Barack Obama was edging ahead of John McCain in her usually solidly red state. After all, she said, Obama’s campaign was using the same sort of language that she had in her gubernatorial race. “The theme of our campaign was ‘new energy,’ ” she said recently. “It was no more status quo, no more politics as usual, it was all about change. So then to see that Obama-literally, part of his campaign uses those themes, even, new energy, change, all that, I think, O.K., well, we were a little bit ahead on that.” She also noted, “Something’s kind of changing here in Alaska, too, for being such a red state on the Presidential level. Obama’s doing just fine in polls up here, which is kind of wigging people out, because they’re saying, ‘This hasn’t happened for decades that in polls the D’ “-the Democratic candidate-” ‘is doing just fine.’ To me, that’s indicative, too. It’s the no-more-status-quo, it’s change.”

This was two weeks ago, at the statehouse in Juneau. After persistent reports, in July, that Palin was on McCain’s short list of potential running mates, her name had faded back into obscurity. Nobody in Alaska seemed to take her seriously as a national prospect, and she had shrugged the whole thing off on television, telling CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that, before considering the job, she would want to know “what is it, exactly, that the V.P. does every day.” Now, at the statehouse, she sat, unattended by aides, curled up in a cardigan, and explained that what she had done every day since becoming governor was to stick her thumb in the eye of Alaska’s Republican Party establishment. “The G.O.P. leader of the state-we haven’t spoken since I got elected,” she said.

Apparently, being the unconventional Party-pooper can be a liability – or an advantage. Depends on the day of writing.

PS: The selection of Palin makes for a good reason to go back and read a PEW survey from five days ago:

Asked what accounts for this slow movement toward gender parity in top political positions, about half (51%) of all survey respondents say a major reason is that Americans simply aren’t ready to elect a woman to high office; more than four-in-ten (43%) say a major reason is that women who are active in politics are held back by men, and 38% say a major reason is that women are discriminated against in all realms of society, and politics is no exception. These are the three most prevalent choices among seven possible explanations presented in the survey.

Next in the pecking order of explanations is the time pressure that comes with trying to balance work and family; 27% of the public cites this as a major reason there aren’t more women leaders in politics. Some 26% say that a big reason is that women don’t have the experience required for higher office. The least common explanations – chosen as a major reason by just 16% and 14% of respondents, respectively – are that women don’t make as good leaders as men and that women aren’t tough enough for politics.