Spare President

Let's not minimize this, folks: The Vice President is a spare President -- and we need a full-size spare.

Did you ever drive one of those compact cars with the undersized spare tire? When you blew one of your regular tires, you had to put the little spare on. You weren't supposed to go full speed, and you were urged to change it at the next gas station. If you traveled a long distance on it, you could damage your car, or so they warned you.

Suppose something happens to John McCain. Do we really see Sarah Palin making nominations to the Supreme Court, or sitting across the table from Putin, or brokering a peace between the Israelis and Palestinians? In the modern world, we just can't afford to limp along to the next station.

Does Mr. McCain expect us to believe that out of all the qualified Republican women out there today, this is the best he can do? What does his selection of Sarah Palin as a running mate tell us about the cabinet secretaries he will choose, or the advisors with whom he will surround himself?

OK, so Barack Obama didn't pick Hillary, and that wasn't too bright. But Joe Biden is a full-size spare -- we could run with him till the next election, if anything happened to Mr. Obama.

I'm not saying that Sarah Palin isn't intelligent, or principled, or a good governor, or a good mother. I don't live in Alaska. She's just not ready for the Big Show. It's clear to me that "gotcha" questions in five-minute interviews don't work on people like her. But I'd like to see how she performs in a half-hour or hour-long unedited interview. Maybe Charlie Rose should have a go. Or maybe we can pray for the resurrection of Tim Russert.

As for the need for change in Washington, it's my experience that the people most qualified to fix something that's broken are those familiar enough with it to know how it's supposed to work in the first place. That job description fits John McCain. It doesn't fit Ms. Palin.

I genuinely like Mr. McCain, and from an ideological point of view, prefer him to Barack Obama. But the prospect of Sarah Palin filling in as President of the Ubited States represents a risk I'm not willing to take with my vote.

I want to be a good Republican -- why does the party have to make it so damned hard?

There, now I've said it.