Sarah Palin: Another example of McCain's lack of judgment?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090203462.html?hpid=topnews

From my point of view, as more information is revealed about the vetting process and the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's Vice Presidential running mate, the more it becomes apparent that Sen. McCain is seriously lacking in judgment. She wasn't even subjected to a "lengthy background interview" until Wednesday. That would be the day before he asked her to be the VP candidate. I just find that to be a very rash decision, especially as you begin to look at her qualifications.

Looking at her qualifications????? Don't do that! That's sexist say many Republicans. How dare you challenge her qualifications?

I won't even go into what a ridiculous argument that is. This is someone that could become the leader of the free world, which is especially pertinent considering McCain could be the oldest President ever elected to a first term and has been very secretive about releasing his medical records.

So let's talk about those qualifications (from Wikipedia, sources can be found there):

1. Served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska (2000 census pop. 5,469) city council from 1992 to 1996.
2. Was mayor of Wasilla for two terms from 1996 to 2002.
3. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004 while also serving as Ethics Supervisor of the commission.
4. As of December of 2006 she has been the Governor of Alaska.

Now I guess you can argue she has executive experience, which seems to be all that McCain and Repubs are doing (side note: what about McCain's executive experience??? Oh that's right, he has none. So if that is so important, why not put her at the top of the ticket?). They seem to be using the kitchen sink approach of throwing anything out there to defend her qualifications, including: the fact that she is a parent (really???) , hunts, fishes, commands the Alaska National Guard (where they conveniently leave out the fact that that doesn't include when they are deployed outside Alaska), and has an Israeli flag in her office. She seems like a very nice, intelligent and capable person, but I can't say I would be comfortable with her as President.

What concerns me is she seems to have little experience on NATIONAL issues and her quote from a month ago is very telling: "As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question." - Politico

How about her understanding of Iraq?
"I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq," Ms. Palin told Alaska Business Monthly in March 2007. - Washington Post

She basically has zero foreign policy experience, she is under investigation for corruption charges (can you say Bush DOJ scandal anyone?), and has little understanding of the very biggest problems the nation is facing right now (the one the Republicans keep ignoring and McCain has admitted he doesn't understand much, the ECONOMY).

Overall it seems like McCain realized his chances were fleeting after the successful Democratic Convention and the amazing speech by Obama where he laid out his vision and plan for a united and prosperous America. Therefore, he decided he needed to make a VP pick that would create a media frenzy and people would spend most of the time before the election focusing on things like Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy and the fact that barely anyone knows anything about the Alaskan Governor. This would allow everyone to forget about how McCain has no new ideas and a scant plan to turn this nation around for the better. So far it seems to be backfiring in the sense that with all the revelations about Palin so soon after McCain's choice, it makes it seem as if McCain lacked major judgment in his decision.

I'll take Obama's judgment over McCain's number of years spent in politics any day.