And as you say she lives in an oil rich state – how could she not be keeping up on Iraq?

I would also guess that this whole rumor about whether she pretended to be pregnant to protect her daughter will also be investigated by McCain's people once they are up there. It should be easy enough to put to rest if it's false with birth certificates, hospital records and so on.

There are 16 mayors in the U.S. that have more constituents than the entire state. Heck, the Kansas City metro area has 3 times as many people as Alaska. In addition something not mentioned in the article is that governors of Alaska don't have anything approaching the fiscal concerns of other governors. The amazing amount of revenue the state derives from oil and mineral leases makes it completely atypical among the states. No other state has that gigantic flow of revenue into the state coffers that allows it to not only not have an income tax but also not have a sales tax. And while Palin may have decried the road to nowhere and some other earmarks does she have a record of opposing the huge amount of pork that Stevens and Young have been bringing home to Alaska that wasn't as well publicized and wasteful? That certainly helped the state economically when they already had that amazing income stream. No, I don't think that Sarah Palin has faced anything like the challenges other governors have faced but I also think that the Obama campaign doesn't need to go there a lot for these facts to come out.

Oh dear. Are you serious? If that's true that's exceedingly damaging for McCain.

This reflects very poorly on John McCain's judgment and leadership. Whatever he does, he does not put “country first.”

“5:16 p.m. | Who You Calling a Girl? From Katharine Q. Seelye: Pat Buchanan on MSNBC just referred to Ms. Palin as a “girl.” And Chris Matthews, who was accused of being sexist during the Democratic primary because of remarks he made about Hillary Rodham Clinton on the air, corrected Mr. Buchanan, telling him that Ms. Palin is a woman, not a girl.”

I agree – this woman has chutzpah and skill and beliefs in line with the GOP. If I were someone who believed what she believes, I would be thrilled EXCEPT THAT the same argument that those of us left of center applied to not choosing Hillary Clinton (not this woman) is available to women on the right of center: not this woman. Why not this woman? For many reasons – but you cannot shut down the option of saying not this woman because…she's a woman.