Update:

Just to set the record straight, I’d like answer those who favorably compare Sarah Palin’s experience to Barack Obama’s. 

First, by contrast to Ms. Palin, he, in his childhood and adolesence grew up in the most racially diverse state in the union, Hawaii, and in one of the poorest foreign countries on the planet, Indonesia, both of which experieces gave him a world view very few American children are priviledged to gain.  After graduating from Columbia, he went to Harvard Law School and was elected President of the Law Review, an honor that goes only to those at the very top. Subsenquently he moved to Chicago, one of the nation’s largest cities, as a community organizer and as a teacher of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. For years, he was exposed to the multitude of  problems faced by urban America.  After serving in the State Senate for 7 years, he was elected to the  U.S. Senate  4 year ago  where he has served on the Foreign Relations  committee.

Yes he has been running for the office of president for the past 18 months but his performance as the executive in charge of a huge, hard-fought, successful national campaign during which he beat one of the most formidable families in politics today is no small thing and speaks very well of his ability to manage large, complex national efforts. 

As one blogger asked, can anyone imagine Sarah Palin at this time running a prolonged  Republican primary campaign and banishing say, the Bush family?  I have no doubt she is a competent governor of Alaska but that is simply too small a playing field to be a springboard to the vice presidency and a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

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The choice of Palin is simply irresponsible. McCain has a 50 percent chance of being president and he puts a heartbeat away from the presidency a 44-year-old who has been governor of the least populated state in the union for less than two years. And that’s the extent of her experience. What on earth does she know about anything to do with governing a huge country or about foreign policy? Her debate with Biden should be very interesting.

To think, as I’m sure they do, that former Hillary supporters can be wooed to their ticket by adding a pro-life, lifetime NRA member surely ranks as one of the dumbest political moves in many years. I will be very surprised if Obama doesn’t get a significant bump in the polls just from this news.

But then when it comes to politics, nobody knows anything.