When you refer to spin, have you considered the spin that the Obama folks are putting on this? First and foremost, as barefoot points out, there is a HUGE difference between the requisite experience expected of a President, the leader of the free world, and the VP. Secondly, Obama's year and a half of campaigning didn't garner him one iota increase in "experience". The only thing it provided was a vetting in front of the American people. So, from an experience perspective, Obama is on roughly the same level as Palin - just that Palin is not stepping into the top job.

During Obama's vetting, I saw enough things in him in terms of his positions and judgement to be convinced that I don't want to see him as president. Other's saw him in a different light and agree with his positions (at least I hope it is his positions that they agree with and not just his ability to read a teleprompter in a very dramatic way.) Now we can vote on whether Obama's experience, positions and judgement make him more suitable for president than McCain, judged on the same attributes.

But, with respect to Palin's experience for the VP role, here is an intellectual honesty question: It was widely speculated that Tim Kaine was on Obama's short list for VP. Here is a candidate whose experience is very similar to Palin's (mayor then governor for the exact amount of time). The pundits and many Dems were extolling what a great pick he would be - not because of his knowledge or experience, but because he might deliver Virginia with all of its electoral votes to Obama. Had he been chosen, would anyone now critical of Palin really had made the same accusations of inexperience and political pandering against Kaine that they are against Palin? I think you know the answer to this one.