Unless Palin has a Learning Deficit Disorder, she should be able to quickly catch up to Obama's miniscule level of foreign policy expertise in no time. There's only one scenario whereby she could not do so... if you are an Obama supporter and proclaim her incapable of doing so.

Your last paper, "Obama's Battle for the battlers", didn't mention foreign affairs as a quality for someone you obviously greatly admire, but now it's apparantly essential. Yes Sarah's not overly strong there or are you just looking for a weak point to attack.

Is your real complaint, that Sarah Palin fulfils what you saw, in that paper, as one of the two essential issues for Obama that could become "problems" for him, I quote "Lastly, a running mate who instantly appeals to white working class Americans might be useful."

Sarah Palin has that doesn't she, like her or or not, she appeals to the white working class, unlike Obama's running mate Biden who looks like another priviledged beltway veteran. Sour grapes.

The addition of Governor Palin to the election mix has certainly the effect of laying bare the workings of the US presidential system.

Her selection was extremely shrewd, even though her subsequent performance has undermined the rationale somewhat.

But it is her references to "Hockey Moms and Joe Sixpacks" that have finally exposed to our gaze what we already knew in our hearts, but were too polite to articulate.

That these people, the HMs and the JSs, whom we hardly know from an international perspective, are going to decide who leads the United States at the beginning of one of the most challenging decades of its short life as a nation.

Forget about her "not being up to the job", whatever that might mean. Behind her, in droves, masses and millions, are people with even less understanding of the dynamics of world affairs, even less understanding of the complexities of global finance, even less understanding of the impact of free trade on jobs and individual prosperity.

Of course, this is the same for any electorate, anywhere in the democratic world.

But what is sharply in focus here is that a supreme virtue is being made of a total, constructive indifference to these issues.

The appeal is categorically to the lowest common denominator.

See, I'm just like you. I care about the things you care about. Elect me, and I'll mould government in your image.

Hockey moms and Joe sixpacks, electing someone in their image. Unworldly, financially naive, internally focussed.

I don't usually care who gets elected in the US. But the international ramifications of a Palin presidency "just a heartbeat away" actually has me concerned for the very first time about its impact on our own future as a nation.

Yeah I'm one Daisym. Being able to see Russia from their front yard doesn't qualify anyone in foreign policy matters. Clearly you haven't heard or read Obama on the same issues.

Nor does Obama believe in the 'end times' that will turn Alaska into a sanctuary for those 'left behind'. Or that humans coexisted with dinosaurs. Or that gays can be rehabilitated. Or that another 100 years in Iraq is preferable to withdrawal. Or...

She could not possibly be as bad as Obama, at least she's inclined to say what she thinks.

Any well programmed computer could do the Obama thing, all the right words, with no meaning behind any of it.

Like another linguist closer to home, all talk, & no taste for action, other than grand gestures.

Just like Rudd, I can't see enough grey matter behind the Obama mouth, to be any use leading a country, unless you really want to be led down the path to oblivion.

That's why they have advisors. What's important is that she is culturally conservative - she believes in God and strives to follow Jesus' example. Unlike her opponents who come up with ways to avoid being good people.