The road to nowhere

Among her beliefs: that if a woman is raped, or the victim of incest, she should be denied the possibility of an abortion; that global warming is not our fault; that "pray-away-the-gay" is one way of dealing with homosexuality; that the government has the right to seize anyone they suspect of association with a terrorist group, U.S. citizens included, strip them of legal protections and keep them detained indefinitely; that the aerial shooting of wolves is admissable ("permittees will be paid $150 when they bring in the left forelegs of wolves taken from any of several designated control areas"); that it was God's will that an oil pipeline bisect Alaska, and for America to invade Iraq.

Even the right are starting to get nervous:—

George W. Bush had very slight executive experience before becoming president. His views were not well known. He won the nomination exactly in the same way that Palin has won the hearts of so many conservatives: by sending cultural cues to convince them that he was one of them, understood them, sympathized with them. So that made everything else irrelevant in 2000 — as it seems again to be doing in 2008..... I am pleading with my fellow conservatives: Please demand more and better knowledge before you commit yourselves to a political leader. That's all" — David Frum

The gamble is enormous. In a stroke, McCain gratuitously forfeited his most powerful argument against Obama. And this was even before Palin’s inevitable liabilities began to pile up — inevitable because any previously unvetted neophyte has “issues.” The kid. The state trooper investigation. And worst, the paucity of any Palin record or expressed conviction on the major issues of our time." — Charles Krauthammer

"[S]ome argue instead (or alternatively) that Sarah Palin's credentials are adequate. These arguments are mostly laughable. We are told that she was a courageous whistle-blower. But whistling-blowing isn’t evidence of leadership skill, administrative ability, or familiarity with vital policy issues. We are told that Palin challenged an incumbent governor and called him out for his corruption. But mounting an insurgent’s campaign for governor isn’t evidence of fitness for the presidency either. We are told that she is responsible for her state’s national guard and visited its troops in Iraq. How this amounts to foreign policy or national security experience, or otherwise qualifies Palin for national office, is unclear. What’s clear is that if Democrats made these sorts of arguments on behalf of a candidate for national office, conservative commentators would excoriate them for it." - Paul Mirengoff, Powerline.