Republican presidential candidate John McCain surprised everyone last week with the pick of Sarah Palin, a virtually unknown governor from the state of Alaska, to be his vice-presidential running mate. Only time will tell if her addition to the Republican ticket was a stroke of genius or a kiss of death for his campaign eager to not be left behind in an election that has been defi ned by historical moments. Regardless of what you may think about her abilities to be our nation’s second in command, Palin’s entry into the public’s political consciousness has made an already riveting race that much more, well, riveting.

When she was introduced by the 72-year old Senator from Arizona last Friday, Palin entered the stage to the sounds of Jerry Goldsmith’s uplifting ballad, “Rudy’s Theme” taken from the Hollywood tearjerker about football, “Rudy”. Given her unlikely rise to national prominence, invoking the sentimental cheer for the underdog spirit of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, the Illinois overachiever who overcame heroic odds to fulfill his dream of playing Notre Dame football that inspired the film, was the perfect musical choice to introduce the mother of five who hopes to claim his story as her own. The inclusion of the song was used to paint the 44-year old evangelical Christian as the outside- the-Beltway crusader McCain hopes will solidify his image as a political maverick unafraid to think out of the box. After Thursday night’s historic announcement that Barack Obama would be our nation’s first African-American to accept the presidential nomination of a major political party, God knows he had to do something bold or risk being left out in the historic firsts cold.

When one considers all the angles of this musical choice, both sides of the political aisle can find reasons as to why, “Rudy’s Theme” is the appropriate musical selection to introduce Sarah Palin to the world.

Like Palin, Rudy, in the Hollywood version and in real life, clearly did not have the skills to compete in his chosen line of dream fulfi llment. It was only after the game was well in hand and the season at its end did Rudy ever set foot on the playing field. While the story is a testament to the power of employing a tenacious work ethic to overcome limitations, the subtle musical analogy McCain and Palin hope to co-opt into their political gain loses luster when the correlation of choice joined his team only in a meaningless battle. Of course, I doubt that too much thought was put into this tune to introduce Palin beyond the fact that it is a recognizable theme from a movie that many Americans (myself included) enjoyed, but, beyond the heart-string pulling sentiments they hoped to appropriate as their own, the story itself reveals parallels that give credence to the feeling that the Alaskan governor doesn’t have the necessary credentials to be on the fi eld.

At the Democratic Convention last Thursday, Obama came onto the stage (as he has many times) to the guitar refrain of, “City of Burning Lights” by U2 hoping to equate the Irish group’s long recorded tradition of civic responsibility with his own message of public accountability.

The decision to make the tune his introductory music played off the burning lights of 80-plus thousand that had filled Invesco Field to see him accept the nomination and served, as “Rudy’s Theme” did for Sarah Palin, to give musical credibility to his platform of change.

Some see this introduction as musical proof of Obama’s inability to govern. ParaTed2K on the forums at joeuser.com had this to say it.

“Reading over the lyrics, I can’t see why he would choose it, but I see that it describes Obama’s campaign of ego, sleight of hand, slick advertising and “how can we fool them today”.

Um, that’s not what I heard, but, thankfully, that is for you to decide.