NBC says it's Sarah Palin for the GOP VP ticket.

UPDATE: CNBC, which had a reporter and film crew with Palin in Alaska last week, reports that Palin calls her husband "the First Dude." Also, CNBC calls him a "sloper," which in Alaska apparently refers to someone who works on the North Slope.

The brief clip CNBC is showing of Sarah Palin pulling in a fish in a net makes her look very competent at fishing. Is she a woman with the kind of genuine blue collar appeal that Hillary Clinton had to work hard to acquire? I don't know.

2d UPDATE: Vice Presidents often become Presidents, a transition which may be slightly more likely to occur with John McCain's health problems.

It is now quite likely that — one way or another — the US will have either an African American or a female President at some time in the next 9 years. And we might have one and then the other.

3d UPDATE: Maria Bartiromo, whose Monday interview of Palin will run today in the 3-4pm hour on CNBC, pronounces Palin's name as PAL-in, not PAY-lin, [but Wikipedia says the pronunciation is PAY-lin].

4th UPDATE: John McCain pronounces it PAY-lin.