Even in an exciting and unpredictable election year, Sen. John McCain’s choice for running mate was a stunning pivot in his campaign—one that could make HR issues more prominent in the race.

McCain, who will formally become the GOP presidential nominee later this week, had been gaining ground on Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama by emphasizing what he called his superior experience and readiness for office.

Although they are assumed to be drawbacks, McCain’s age, 72, and more than 20 years in the Senate are a potential comfort to people uneasy with the young Obama, 47, who remains largely undefined after nearly four years in the Senate and several in the Illinois state Legislature.

But McCain must have decided that the experience tack would provide ephemeral benefits. Instead, he concluded that the election will be decided on “change.”

So, he plucked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin out of relative obscurity and thrust her into the national spotlight. McCain says that Palin’s record of reforming the Alaskan government and the state’s GOP would give him an ideal vice president and partner to shake up Washington.

McCain hopes Palin energizes his “change” brand and makes it harder for Obama to cast McCain as a continuation of the Bush administration. Palin, 44, is now the fresh face and untested wild card in the race, not Obama.

One way she could change the campaign for Workforce Management readers is being a touchstone for HR topics. First, there is the issue of readiness to be president.

Just as corporate boards parse the background of potential CEOs, voters will have to decide whether Palin is prepared to be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

Republicans argue that Palin’s 20 months as Alaska governor give her more executive seasoning than Obama. In addition, she has hands-on experience dealing with energy policy—one of the top campaign issues—thanks to her service on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Democrats decry her lack of foreign policy background, even though Obama’s introduction to the subject has consisted of his brief Senate career—about half of which he has spent running for president.

But in fairness to Obama and Palin, a thin résumé in world affairs is a canard. Washington has a deep bench of foreign policy experts. Neither will be on their own trying to figure out policy toward Russia.

Plenty of brilliant minds currently working at Washington think tanks or in the State Department would jump at the chance to join Palin’s VP staff or Obama’s national security team. Palin and Obama won’t lack for foreign policy tutors, especially if you count all the members of Congress who will weigh in. It will be up to them to use their best judgment on the advice they get.

Foreign policy was not on McCain’s mind when he selected Palin. In part, he was making a pitch for disaffected supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and for unaligned suburban women.

It’s unclear whether Palin will inspire those women to vote for McCain. But she almost certainly will cause Obama to focus even more on women’s issues than he was going to anyway.

In an effort to strengthen his ties to the Clinton Nation, look for Obama to emphasize legislation providing for equal pay, paid sick days and paid time off. He will assert that McCain and Palin are detrimental to working women.

Although Palin is even more conservative than McCain, her biography throws a curve into the HR debate. She will probably oppose legislation that Obama touts. But she also brings a perspective that Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, lack.

Palin is a walking women’s focus group to whom almost any HR professional can relate. She is a working mother who not only returned to the office shortly after giving birth, but she will be doing her job remotely much of the time—running Alaska via BlackBerry and cell phone while she campaigns in the lower 48.

Palin’s is a two-income family dealing with a health care challenge (her infant son has Down syndrome) and a wayward teen (her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant). She had to break several glass ceilings in her rapid climb to the top of Alaskan politics. But she also is defined by a traditional workplace affiliation—her husband is in a union and she once belonged to one.

Obama calls himself a Rorschach test. Everyone sees in him what they want to see. Palin is more a reflection of everyday working women. They can see in her some part of themselves.

It’s likely that HR issues will be refracted through the Palin prism this fall.