Let's play What Would You Do?

You are John McCain. Somehow, the world has come to believe that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is your pick for Vice President. She is a loyal conservative who has sated most social conservatives wary of your supposed open-mindedness. There are some reasons (here are 15) that indicate that she may not be a good choice.

The nice lady on CNN just said "the last couple of days have been pretty rough" for Palin. The AP is calling the first day of the convention a "Day of Stunning Palin Disclosures". You're not the story. She is the story, for all the wrong reasons. You apparently did a crap job vetting Palin, and the crap that you didn't uncover keeps comin'.

Do you ditch her?

There's already plenty out there to indicate that you didn't really want her for VP anyway. You have two pissed-off Republican giants waiting in the wings. And they're pissed.

You went out of your way to pick a woman. You passed over a range of Republican women to find one that would make social conservatives happy. Potential winners Jodi Rell, Linda Lingle, Elizabeth Dole, Carly Fiorina. You obviously have a lot of loose ends with Palin, and she just hired a lawyer to cover her corrupt butt (which you've been caught admiring on tv while fidgeting with your wedding ring...smooth!).

Do you ditch her? Do you pull a Harriet Miers and have her withdraw tearfully? In order to replace her with...another super-rich billionaire people can't connect with? Some guy? Do you dig up another Republican woman willing to sacrifice her career, or just go with a man and hope for partial credit?

You can hope to weather the storm. The family values hypocrites will swallow the teen pregnancy to put McCain in the White House. When Obama-McCain-Obama-McCain gets going, maybe people will forget about Sarah Palin in the wake of your convention and the debates. As long as she finds the debate hall, the media wil ldeclare that she topped expectations against Biden. Maybe the troopergate thing won't blow up, and maybe there won't be any more unpleasant surprises. Do you ditch her?

Or you can hope to get the storm behind you. Pull a switcheroo. Hope to get credit for picking a woman, even though it didn't work out. Pick someone predictable and grit through, or try to find another woman. People will crow and laugh, just like they did with Miers. But Samuel Alito has been forgotten, and is a loyal soldier for the wackjob cause. In the long run, one could expect that Romney or Pawlenty will be better in the long run -- they've been vetted appropriately (or could be this time), they'd hold their own against Biden in the debate, they come across as ready in case you don't survive until January 2013. They do have a "rich white Republican man" problem, though...

You're John McCain. Do you ditch her?

Update: The question got a whole lot easier to answer.