Waking up on the west coast means you’re always a few hours behind. In a world in which the news never stops, at least the reporting of it, the 7am alarm means today’s domestic news has been churning for 10 hours already.

I turn on the news this morning to see McCain wasted no time in bagging Obama’s thunder and announcing his new running mate, Sarah Palin. She has been the governor of Alaska for the last 20 months. McCain and Palin met for the first time in February during the National Governor’s Association in Washington. The next time the two spoke was on Sunday of this past week when McCain called to discuss the position of Vice-President of the United States with her. Then, Thursday morning – i.e. yesterday, McCain met her for the second time and offered her a chance to be our next Vice-President.

That’s six months with two conversations, one via phone. In my own pathetic world I look at that and think I would not feel comfortable taking her to a party, much less making her a partner. Granted, I am not nearly as important as the potential president of the United States – but isn’t that the @#$%ing point?!?

McCain does realize he is running for president, doesn’t he? Perhaps someone should tell him. He must also realize that a VP pick probably won’t make your ticket but it can drag it down, like a Quayle.

People familiar with the rigorous vetting procedure Obama had in place say that it was thoughtful and thorough. He wanted someone with whom he felt comfortable on both a personal and a professional level and he chose Biden, who can ably step into the role should something happen to President Obama.

McCain meets Palin at a conference, they chat for a few moments and then he decides to put her one malignant melanoma moment away from the most powerful position in the free world? Is that the kind of judgment we need?

This vaguely smacks of when George W. Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. It was almost as if he looked about the room, pointed to Harriet and asked ‘What about her?’ Harriet was then ripped apart by the press, with her credentials and education being trampled by those finding them wanting.

Has McCain done the same thing? Was he sitting around one of his houses last week when he looked at Joe and said ‘What about that cute governor from Alaska?’

I am not going to launch into a critique of Sarah Palin here. I don’t know enough about her yet to make an informed decision.

Apparently neither does McCain.

After being provided with the numbers by two non-partisan groups he responded by saying “I really wish you would talk to my economists.”

He really is feeling more and more like Bush…wonder if it has anything to do with his new campaing manager…the former campaing manager of George W. Bush.

By the way, several of his “300 Economists” have came out to say that they were misrepresented by John McCains camp. While they may have supported bits and pieces in the past, they do not in fact support his economic plan.