JOHN McCAIN picked the wrong Palin for his running mate, according to a YouTube video that is spreading like wildfire on the internet.

The presidential candidate should not have chosen Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, but Michael Palin, the former Monty Python star turned travel documentary maker.

“Although a British citizen is not technically qualified to run for office in the United States, he is still more qualified than the other Palin,” says the video from the website Michael Palin for President.

It is not just that he has seen so much more of the world than his namesake, who has seldom left the United States. The video cites evidence from the sketch show Monty Python’s Flying Circus of strong religious convictions that could help him attract support on the conservative right. Who can forget the sketch with Palin dressed as a cardinal, shouting: “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”?

He also takes a stance on the environment (“I’m a lumber-jack and I’m okay”), constitutional affairs (“Strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords, is no basis for a system of government”) and the penal system (“Cardinal, poke her with the soft cushion”).

Michael Palin says he does not know of any relatives in Alaska but believes the governor has given McCain’s campaign a “feisty edge”.

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