The Republican nominee for vice president, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, brings to the ticket many of the shared values of the Republican Party but can those same values compensate for the lack of political experience?

The selection of Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin as Senator John McCain’s running mate on the Republican ticket has certainly heated up the race to the White House — in more ways than one.

Without even considering the teenage pregnancy of her 17-year-old daughter or her state’s investigation into the alleged abuse of power by her and others in her administration, the governor’s candidacy has seemingly exposed a fundamental contradiction with the Republican Party’s own platform.

McCain’s selection of Palin gives pause in light of the Republican Party’s adopted platform rejecting “preferences, quotas and set-asides” in education, corporate boardrooms and government practice.

Since “preferences” implies that the selection of those candidates is based less on merit and qualifications, Palin’s selection is a curious move. Especially for a party that wants to appeal in part to those Latino voters who were staunch Hillary supporters and are still on the fence as to whether or not to support the Obama/Biden ticket.

If Palin’s selection was supposed to be seen as a viable substitute for Clinton that would appease her former supporters then it’s a miscalculation that begs deeper scrutiny — something that’s making the Republican Party rather testy these days.

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