Oh, and following up on Amos's comment about Palin's "free ride," let's remember this:

John McCain and Barack Obama both won their party's nominations by the vote of the electorate, after a lot of scrutiny by the media and attacks by their opponents. They have been thoroughly vetted and deemed qualified by many millions of voters.   

Sarah Palin did not go through that rigorous vetting process to become her party's VP nominee. In fact, by keeping her name out of the media's attention as someone on McCain's "short list," the Republicans shielded her from the sort of vetting that Tim Pawlenti, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and others on that "short list" got from the media and the public.