So now we know: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been chosen by Republican Sen. John McCain to be his running mate in the upcoming presidential election. With her selection last week, the McCain campaign managed to steal some thunder from the Democratic National Convention and at the same time prompt an overwhelming majority of the electorate to ask, "Sarah who?" Sarah Palin. It is a desperate attempt by McCain to inject some vitality and interest into his campaign. On the surface, Palin seems an intriguing choice. She's young at 44 - younger even than Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. The governor of a sparsely populous state, mother of five and a person who likes to hunt, she's an ardent social conservative whose views appeal to the far-right wing of the Republican Party. Palin's selection was no doubt made in part to mollify the far-right in much the same way Dan Quayle was to Bush the Elder in 1988.The larger issue has to do with Palin's qualifications. Given McCain's age - whether you regard it a legitimate issue or not - the issue of experience for his vice president is a greater concern than if he were 10 years younger. Simply put, Palin is not qualified to be president. (And this has nothing to do with Monday's news that her teenage daughter is pregnant, though you'd have to wonder about the McCain vice-presidential vetting process if they either didn't know or actually thought such news would remain under wraps.)It's legitimate to call Palin a political neophyte. She's been a governor for less than two years. Yes, she was a mayor for six years. But there are cruise ships with larger populations than Wasilla, Alaska. Consider that McCain's wife, Cindy, deemed Palin sufficiently strong on foreign-policy issues because Alaska is close to Russia. She's an odd choice in the sense that her inexperience undermines McCain's efforts to portray Obama as the candidate without experience. The headlines showed her hunting, showed her with her family, mentioned that she had a layout in Vogue. She may be charming, could even be a fundamentally competent person. But is she someone who we'd really want to answer that proverbial 3 a.m. call?No, not by a long shot.[[In-content Ad]]
