Teddy Roosevelt?!?!?! The man who led the charge up San Juan Hill? The man who practically INVENTED the National Park system?

The latest figures I could find for the population of Alaska were just over 686,000. Compare this to my home state of NH at 1.3M. We manage to get by without a sales or income tax and have a lot of people moving up here from Massachusetts expecting services to come with them. I'll put Governor Lynch (whom I don't agree with very often) agains Ms. Palin any day of the week when it comes to having to get a job done.

In other words, the population of Boston - just the city limits, not the metro area. This population is spread over an area half the size of 'the lower 48'.

So let's look at Palin's experience. On the Wasilla City council for 4 years, mayor for 6. Lost an election for Lt. Governor in '02 and chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Coservation Commission from 2003 until she resigned in '04. In '06, she became governor and resigned in '09. It still puzzles me as to why she resigned. I still can't get over her saying "I am not quitting" in the very speech where she said she was quitting.

To compare her to Teddy Roosevelt isn't exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. You're comparing a 200-year-old oak tree to an acorn. Take a look at the two Wikipedia pages. Even if you ignore the section on Palin's controversies (which are flagged as "may not be neutral") the differences are striking.

I think so many people have jumped on the Palin bandwagon because they're looking for SOMEone to carry their torch annd while Palin has the 'looks' and the charisma, she doesn't (to me) seem to have the substance to back it up. Let's face it, isn't that some of the same criticism going to Obama?

That being said, I don't know if ANYONE can run the gauntlet that the press puts up. I mean, if Jesus Christ himself were running for office, the press would be running investigative stories into who his 'real' father was, who was Joseph covering up for, was Mary telling the truth and why is his inner circle of advisors entirely male?