Phil, I’m sorry, but I have to part ways with you on this one. In fact, I would propose a rule that NOBODY could be proposed as Veep who cannot immediately, on Day One, be seen as legitimately ready to be president. She clearly doesn’t even come close. As the VERY short-term governor of the most sparsely populated state in the union, a state so wealthy that its citizens get a check from state government every year, she has had no chance, none at all, to prove that she could serve in the Oval Office at a moment’s notice.

This is not a slap at you, Phil, but a general comment: I become more and more amazed at how cavalierly people in general treat the job of president, in terms of how hard it is, how qualified and experienced one must be to do the job right, etc. Even JFK, after 12 years in office in DC, was pathetically unready for the job and made horrible mistakes in his first year in office. The very idea that Barack Obama is ready for the presidency is laughable. The notion of Bobby Jindal as president, even with a ton of mid-level governmental executive experience and a genius IQ, but still without much political seasoning, is not laughable, but it is at least a little dicey. John Edwards four years ago? Frankly, nuts. heck, Jimmy Carter after one full term as governor of Georgia was woefully unprepared for office, not just by virtue of ideology but of relevant and useable experience. And Palin just doesn’t cut it, despite all her political strengths. I just HATE the way people talk about Veeps in purely political terms without considering that these people are a heartbeat away from the presidency, and that since 1976 they have become steadily and increasingly more powerful in their own rights. It’s a dangerous world out there. Too dangerous to entrust an almost utter novice with control of the nuclear football.