As a Brit observing the US election from outside, I can see why the Republicans might have wanted to select a woman VP candidate. However, it seemed that the specific choice of Palin took away one of their strongest arguments - that Obama lacks experience. So I'd be interested in a US view on the following: were/are there no other female republican politicians with credibility and experience? If Palin was the only one on the horizon, how has that happened? If there were/are other potential candidates, why didn't they get selected?

Interested to hear from both sides of the US political debate on this.

KP