Palin pick gives hint of McCain's CEO style, Arizona senator gets more viewers than Obama

Arizona senator's John McCain's wild-card pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate has supporters and detractors of McCain saying the pick gives hints to what kind of CEO McCain would be if he wins in November.

Both sides say the Palin pick shows McCain may more prone to go with his "gut" than Obama and other presidents. and say the choice is a good indication of the Arizona senator's decision-making process.

To backers, the Palin pick shows McCain would take on the presidential CEO role with fortitude and following his instincts.

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"She was an unconventional pick that most ordinary candidates wouldn't have made. McCain believed in her and made the decision in spite of the talking heads," said Nathan Sproul, a principal with Lincoln Strategy Group, a political and public relations consulting firm in Tempe.

Skeptics question whether the Palin pick shows an impetuousness from McCain and undermines McCain's argument that Obama (a freshman U.S. senator) is too inexperienced to be president.

Jay Thorne, a Phoenix business and political consultant, said that kind of change in course would run into problems in the private marketplace.

"If a CEO spent an entire year telling his employees and the marketplace one thing, and then in his first decision at the helm did something entirely contradictory to his strategic business plan, the loss of faith would permeate not only the entire company, but the marketplace as well," said Thorne.

Thorne also said Obama's choice of U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden went against his outsider, agent-of-change theme considering Biden is a long-tenured senator.

McCain accepted the Republican nomination Thursday. promising more domestic energy development, tax reductions for corporations, small businesses and families with children and a commitment to free trade.

Polls show McCain beginning to get a bump from the St. Paul convention, reducing Obama's lead or being tied, in the case of CBS News polls

Rasmussen Reports poll also shows Palin with higher favorable ratings (58 percent) than McCain or Obama (57 percent each) and far higher than President Bush or the Democratic Congress.

Close to 39 million viewers watched McCain's speech Thursday. His wife, Cindy Hensley McCain also spoke, She is the chairwoman of Hensley & Co., a Phoenix-based Anheuser Busch distributor. McCain's speech outdrew Obama's Denver acceptance speech by about 500,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The buzz around Palin's VP speech on Wednesday helped spur more interest in McCain's talk.