I took an internet-based gander at Republican VP Sarah Palin today (which, according to the LA Times is all that McCain's vetting people did).  My conclusion is much the same as my question upon hearing the announcement.

What the f**k was he thinking?

By now you've, no doubt, heard about several issues surrounding the relatively new Governor of Alaska.

1.  She's been on the job for 21 months (and McCain has spent the past several months bashing Obama as "not ready"..and McCain is statistically at risk of death in the next four years).

2.  She is an advocate of "family values" with a pregnant 17-year-old daughter (not to worry, she's going to marry the baby's father) and a four-month old child with Down Syndrome (not to mention 2 other children of an age to need...according to the religious right...a mother @ home).

3.  She fired the Alaska Public Safety Commisioner and there is an ethics question pending about whether or not his firing related to his refusal to dismiss her (admittedly wacko) brother-in-law.

Any of these things might have put a reasonable man off of Palin as a V.P. choice (especially if that reasonable man was the oldest Presidential candidate in history and his running mate, one of the youngest V.P candidates).

But there are two little tidbits that you may not know despite today's media frenzy.

A)  The person Palin chose to replace the Public Safety Commisioner resigned when it was discovered that he had been reprimanded of sexual harrassment.  Rather than express shock and dismay (at her staff for failing to turn up this crucial piece of information or at her chosen replacement for not disclosing the smoking gun to her), Palin berated the media and said it was no wonder that good people don't get into politics.

B)  McCain's camp touts Palin's "experience" as an executive, saying that she's at least as qualified as Obama since she was Mayor of Wassila for six year and Governor of Alaska for 21 months.

Wasilla, Alaska (according to their own budget figures) had fewer than 70 full time staff as of 2003, the year after Palin departed Wasilla for her failed attempt to gain the Lieutenant Governor seat in Alaska.  Just by point of reference, that's about 380 fewer people than I was reponsible for as a District Manager of a major bank a few years back.

Want to vote for me?

My gut instinct is that this choice for V.P. will come back to haunt McCain.  It exemplifies his rebellious, shoot from the hip nature--which he likes to style as a reformer/rebel with a cause approach.

There will, no doubt, be more to come with Palin in the coming days.  For now, I see it as a rather large miscalculation--aimed at Hillary voters...claiming only the right wing die-hards who love her pro-life stance.

Let's not even get started on what might have been prevented if her daughter had access and education on condoms in addition to abstinence only rhetoric...

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