US:JOHN McCAIN yesterday defended his choice of running mate Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, in the face of widespread scorn about her lack of experience, especially in foreign policy.
Asked about her lack of experience on Fox News Sunday, McCain said: "She's been commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard . . . she's had judgment on these issues."
Republicans accused Ms Palin's critics of being sexist in their readiness to dismiss her. The appointment of the social conservative as vice-presidential nominee, has been enthusiastically greeted by the party's right wing.
One of McCain's closest advisers, Senator Graham Lindsey, said she had more experience than McCain's presidential opponent, Barack Obama: "She's been a governor . . . that's more than Obama."
Ms Palin's appointment came as a surprise to Obama's campaign team, which immediately criticised her lack of experience. But Mr Obama himself later changed the tone to politely welcome the historic nature of having the first woman on a Republican ticket. His campaign team dispatched staff to Alaska to look into her background, including her initial support for the state's expensive and infamous Ketchikan bridge, known better as the Bridge to Nowhere. Real Clear Politics, a website that tracks major polls and provides a running average, yesterday had Mr Obama on 47 per cent and McCain on 44 per cent. In the battlefield states, Obama was ahead in Pennsylvania and McCain in Florida, with the two were tied in Ohio.
In a theme echoed by other Democrats throughout the day, Senator John Kerry, the failed Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2004, described Ms Palin as having been picked to placate the Republican party's right wing, which is suspicious of McCain.
Mr Kerry told ABC News: "He's chosen somebody who doesn't believe climate change is man-made."
He said it was insulting to Hillary Clinton supporters to suggest that Ms Palin, given her anti-abortion and other socially conservative views, might woo them.
The former Democratic Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, described the appointment as "inexplicable".
But Rush Limbaugh, whose radio show attracts millions of right-wing listeners, enthusiastically welcomed her. "Palin equals guns, babies, Jesus . . . Obama just lost blue-collar, white Democratic voters in Pennsylvania and other states," Limbaugh said.
James Dobson, the conservative Christian leader who had been opposed to McCain, said the selection of Palin had won him over. - (Guardian service)