Oh, I would much prefer Palin myself- I would happily consider a Palin ticket without McCain! My main problems with Palin are these:
1. Not that she is inexperienced, but that there is not enough track record to properly assess her abilities and character. Because of this, one must tend to judge her as "inexperienced".
2. She increased severance fees (taxes) on oil companies, and then converted the resulting revenue surpluses into "tax rebates" for Alaskan citizens. That stinks of wealth redistribution, no matter how one slices it, and it bothers me greatly.
Those are my only two critical points against Palin. I like her, I find her engaging, quick, and capable. But I also find the messiah-like qualities being attached to her to be quite silly.
She is a pretty typical Western woman. One can find dozens folks just like her in towns all over the Rockies, Governor, and speechifying aside. I am afraid her bar is being set so impossibly high that she will be unable to live up to the role that people seem to be assigning to her.
As to the pregnancy of her daughter, I do not think I would have exposed my own daughter to world wide scrutiny in the midst of her shame. I probably would have declined the job. But that is me, and I do not speak for the Palin Family, nor hold them to my standard on this issue.
I also do not hold the sins of the daughter against her, or her family, or against Sarah Palin herself. Many good families have had sons and daughters go astray- There, but for the grace of God, go my own. What is important is how the family handles itself in this crisis, which it is doing perfectly as an entity, and as individuals. There is *nothing* there to criticize, IMHO.
She is full of energy and engaging and has pushed the Clintons out of the headlines. This will not sit well with Hillary and Bill.