I’m a big cynic about politics. I believe a candidate’s choices are motivated first by their personal desire to be in power, second by their desire for their cronies to be in power, and third, if at all, to serve the needs of the electorate.

After Barack Obama announced his choice of Joe Biden for veep, I was a little astounded. Frankly, I’d given Obama credit for more brains than that. In an election that’s a dead heat between voters, the smart choice would have been a conservative democrat with Bubba appeal who could draw in the critical swing bloc of independents and disaffected Republicans. But Biden? Joe Biden makes Barack Obama look like Margaret Thatcher. Anybody sitting on the fence and waiting for V.P. nominations to help in the decision-making process won’t be likely to be happy about such a liberal ticket.

I thoroughly expected this to be yet one more highly polarized conservative vs. liberal slugfest, with a tight neck-in-neck race the whole way. But I was surprised by a plot twist none of us could have anticipated — McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who recently gave birth to her fifth child and announced that she’d also be a granny when her teenager has a baby in four months. She’s an excellent tactical choice on McCain’s part; Obama chooses a guy even more liberal than he is. So instead of responding by picking some old normal Republican white dude, he picks a younger woman with small kids, ties to independent politics, and an 80% approval rating for her emphasis on clean politics and responsible fiscal policies. But oops! Says the blogosphere. Palin’s 17-year-old is pregnant! That makes her the worst choice ever, right?

Wrong. The fact that Palin’s daughter is knocked up is a big bonus for McCain. I wasn’t surprised to hear the McCain camp announce that they knew about the pregnancy when they picked Palin. I’m not cynical enough to think the girl deliberately got pregnant as a tactical move, but this is a big blessing in disguise. No candidate should be perfect. In fact, it’s the public’s attitudes toward a candidate’s flaws (rather than their actual political platform) that often determines whether or not they can be elected. And now, the right-wing ticket gets to look compassionate, realistic, and centrist by standing by and supporting Palin’s high schooler and her little unborn right-to-lifer.

Uber-Conservatives are all riled up over this gasp shocking breach of chastity. Big deal! What are they going to do, vote for a Democratic ticket that they believe will bring on an apocalypse of drive-through abortion clinics? If anything, having a teen with a bun in the oven gives Palin extra appeal, as it makes the McCain ticket look even more unorthodox than all previous Republican offerings.

Palin’s open support and protection of her daughter coats her in political Teflon. Liberals who attack her will look callous and petty. Conservatives who denounce her will just be irrelevant. Pro-lifers will approve of the fact that the baby isn’t being sucked down a vacuum tube in bits and pieces. Liberals will see that an unwed mother isn’t being kicked out on the streets, even in a conservative Republican family. Independents won’t see what the big deal is, and will just be annoyed by whining coming from the extremes on both ends of the political spectrum.

As far as swing vote appeal, Obama made the overwhelmingly worse choice in his running mate. But he may be able to make up for it with his classy approach to the situation. While Obama might have spooked swing voters by picking a hard-left veep, he stands a chance to woo them back with statements like the one he gave in Monroe:

“Let me be as clear as possible. I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president.”

Obama can keep looking compassionate, centrist, and relevant in this tight election. Particularly smart is his harsh condemnation stupid conspiracy theories on liberal blogs alleging that Palin faked her fifth pregnancy, and that her baby with Down’s Syndrome is actually her daughter’s.

Either way, I’m just glad my election malaise has been broken by a more interesting battle to watch than the same old left versus right.