The thought of President Palin scares her

Imagine Sarah Palin as our president. President Palin. Commander in Chief Palin.

It was politically irresponsible for John McCain to select a running mate with absolutely no national or international job experience. Palin's job performance as governor and her political tactics in Alaska are under official bipartisan legislative investigation for abuse of power (please see Sept. 14 N.Y. Times article).

To summarize, her approach to governing has been very small-town—vendetta firings, budget cuts with the help of only her husband and one budget director, over 300 days of her oneand-a-half-year governorship spent "working at home" hundreds of miles away from the capital with a daily costofliving reimbursement and travel stipend at taxpayers' expense, rare availability for meetings with other Alaskan leaders or constituents and heavy use of lobbyists to accumulate porkbarrel spending projects for Alaska, including the "bridge to nowhere." And the plane was not sold on e-Bay.

Palin and McCain are both fuzzy on facts when they speak off the cuff.

Every Palin public appearance is tightly scripted, and neither she nor her staff in Alaska are allowed any contact with the press, except for selected interviews.

When speaking in interviews about basic things like entitlements, the Bush Doctrine and our relationship with Russia— or even where it is- - her knowledge seems extremely limited.

Republicans seem more interested in the celebrity and "small-town girl" mythology of Palin and her "inspiring" speech at the convention—which was written by a Bush speechwriter and mostly dealt sarcastic lowblows to Obama.

As a woman, I'm excited about the concept of another female V.P. candidate, but not about this candidate's far-right conservative views, questionable use of power in Alaska or her apparent lack of qualifications for the job.

Her supporters cannot have any idea who she really is because she has rarely spoken for herself publicly as a vicepresidential candidate.

Voters must be absolutely certain they can entrust this selfproclaimed "small-town girl" with no national or international job experience with the leadership of the most powerful nation in the world.

That certainty is impossible in the case of Sarah Palin. Julia Chambers Thousand Oaks