Ezekiel, if she were nothing more than a female, I'd agree that Palin would be a token.
The most obvious reason for her selection is to peel off Hillary supporters. But she does more than that.
She makes up for the ambivalence or even hostility of gun owners toward McCain. (Note picture above).
She has more executive experience than either Biden or Obama. The Dem's can bleat all they want about her not having any foreign policy credentials, but Obama has none, either. And McCain's foreign policy credentials are stronger than Biden's.
Her strong pro-life credentials will help energize a segment of the Republican base that was somewhat apathetic toward McCain.
She has more hands-on experience with the oil and drilling issue than any of the four, an issue that is front and center with the public.
Because she is relatively unknown, the media will be forced to give her column space to provide her story or be seen by even the least politically astute as blatantly biased. And that's column space that would have gone to Obama.
She's more than a token, but she has a ton of work to do to get the public behind her.
The timing is perfect, though. The Obamafest and His speech are now secondary headlines.