the Veep-stakes

Of course the news for the next few days will be dominated by Mrs. Palin's disclosure of her pregnant daughter. I'm not going to talk here about that and whether it does or should have made any difference in McCain's choice.

The main topic is the idea that the VP is one-heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Is she ready to take over the country? Of course not.

But listening to Imus interview Tom Friedman today I was struck by a couple of comments:

One had to do with Biden. If in one or more primary races for the Democratic nod in years past, he has never mustered enough votes to continue, should we take that into consideration as to what most people wanted - especially Democrats since they were the only ones voting? I mean if a majority of Democrats never felt like he should be President, should the rest of the country now accept or assume he will be OK?

Of course not - that's not how it works.

Biden brings a lot to the ticket and he fills in some blanks. Does America want him as their President too? I doubt it. (At least 18 million of them wanted - and may STILL want Hillary!) This is all political.

The second comment was about Presidential decision making. The main thing we want in a President is for him/her to be surrounded by people who are very smart and wise and experienced. The test, according to Mr. Friedman, is what does the President do when those experts disagree.

I honestly don't know much about Palin yet - I know more about her teenage daughter so what does that say about the media's infatuation with scandal?

I still take Palin for exactly what she is and what the decision was. McCain desperately needed a nudge that Ridge, Pawlenty or no one else was going to give. Lieberman would have alienated too many party faithful. He could have gone with Carla Fiorina, former HP chair if he wanted to shake things up too but they would have really torn her up over her tenure at HP!

Is Palin the absolute best person for this job? Probably not. But is she good enough and does she bring something to the campaign? Of course.

This stage is about winning an election - not running the country. It's also about 2012. I have no doubts that should Obama lose, he will not run again. But I am certain Hillary will. And the GOP has to be looking at 2012 even if McCain won't promise to run for only one term.