It was exactly 10 years and two days ago that Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain stood at a microphone in Dayton, Ohio, and introduced what some analysts have called the greatest miscalculation of his political career — his choice of running mate Sarah Palin.

Much will be said and written in tribute to McCain in the coming days and weeks on the event of his passing, all of it richly deserved.

McCain was a hero-statesman in every respect. A Navy fighter pilot and Vietnam War hero who survived five years as a prisoner of war; and a stalwart in the halls of Congress. He was known as a stubborn maverick, a freethinker who was not timid about working across the aisle to get things done.

And when McCain won the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, he shook up the status quo by choosing the outsider Palin as his vice presidential pick.

He might have gone with Joe Lieberman, a moderate Democrat who later became a political independent. But the pragmatic McCain needed a not-so-pragmatic running mate to shake up his campaign, which was lagging.

Palin was a political gamble for McCain, and when he introduced her for the first time on Aug. 29, 2008 (it happened to be his 72nd birthday), what McCain said about the qualities he was looking for in a vice president were more appealing than the actual candidate:

“I’ve spent the last few months looking for a running-mate who can best help me shake up Washington and make it start working again for the people that are counting on us. As I’m sure you know, I had many good people to choose from, all of them dedicated to this country and to getting us back on the road to prosperity and peace, and I am grateful to all of them and honored by their willingness to serve with me. ... But I could only choose one. And it is with great pride and gratitude that I tell you I have found the right partner to help me stand up to those who value their privileges over their responsibilities, who put power over principle, and put their interests before their needs. I found someone with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies, someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past. Someone who has stopped government from wasting the taxpayers’ money on things they don’t want or need and put it back to work for the people. ... Someone with strong principles, a fighting spirit and deep compassion.”

In Butler County, McCain-Palin received 57,074 votes in the 2008 election; Obama-Biden received 32,260. The statewide vote was a different matter: Obama took 55 percent of Pennsylvania’s popular vote and all 21 electoral votes.

How would America be different today had McCain won the White House in 2008? How would he have handled the economic crash and Great Recession, the bailout of the banks and automakers, the war on terror and fight against ISIS? We can only speculate.

Ten years after that August day in Dayton, it’s Palin’s turn to say kind words about the senator from Arizona.

“Today we lost an American original,” Palin said of McCain in a statement released Sunday. “Sen. John McCain was a maverick and a fighter, never afraid to stand for his beliefs. John never took the easy path in life — and through sacrifice and suffering he inspired others to serve something greater than self. John McCain was my friend. I will remember the good times. My family and I send prayers for Cindy and the McCain family.”