Was the Palin Pick Petulance?

Think of what we know about John McCain's temper, his habit of tweaking the GOP brass just for the sake of tweaking them, his love for attention-grabbing moments, and the disassociation from reality produced by a quarter-century of MSM love. Add to that what is becoming more apparent with each hour -- the amount of vetting that his campaign did on Palin is astounding small. With all that in mind, read this:

Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.

Tell me if this is crazy: McCain really wanted to pick Lieberman as his running mate. I mean, really, really wanted to. That much has been obvious, even apart from the above blockquote, for months.

When he was told he couldn't pick his friend, in large part because the far-right loons ("the base") of the GOP wouldn't stand for Lieberman's pro-choice stance, he said, Okay, fine. They want one of their own? I'll show them!

I don't think this theory tells the whole story. I do think he saw the more conventional short-listers (e.g., Romney and Pawlenty) as being either flawed, personally unlikeable, or too boring to give his campaign the jolt it needed. I also think McCain bought into the PUMA fiction, given how close he is to those media types who have been promoting the PUMA fiction since June. But I wonder how much about the Palin pick can be explained as a mere fit of pique.