One of the defenses of John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate is that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were each also in their 40s and relatively inexperienced when running for President.
The problem with that defense is that Clinton and Obama each prepared for their presidential runs by networking extensively, asking the right people the right questions, and reflecting on the answers they got. Palin seems to have done none of that preparation (and, to be fair to her, she had no reason to do it).
Beyond that, Clinton was tightly networked into Washington before 1992 and Obama has served there as a senator for three years. Palin not only lacks even that experience with Washington, but she has also been in Alaska. Living in Portland, Oregon, I feel isolated from the rest of the country. Alaska? She might as well have been on the other side of the moon.
We don’t want our presidents to be “creatures of Washington”. The surest way to become a creature of Washington, though, is to not know how things work there and not have a trusted group of advisers who can help you. That’s where Sarah Palin is today.
