No, it won’t provide short-term relief, a point Palin is astute enough in her letter to concede but Maverick, to his peril, is not. But so what? The name of the game is long-term planning: Petroleum isn’t going away anytime soon so let’s get cracking on exploiting what we have as a parallel track to developing alternatives. It’s not either/or, a point McCain’s new energy ad strives to make clear.

I don’t know if she sent the letter at his behest or on her own initiative, but if you’re a charismatic young governor looking to use a hot button to raise your profile, there are worse moves you can make than this.