Was it the economy that took the presidential race out of John McCain’s hands? Certainly, the economy was one factor, but I believe Sarah Palin was the biggest factor, because unless you’re gnawing on solid red meat conservatism, she isn’t very comforting.

Before the vice presidential running mates were picked, there was a lot of hullabaloo between bloggers, commentators, journalists, and pundits over who should and shouldn’t be picked as vice president. Would Hillary Clinton be good for the ticket, or is she too divisive? How will Mitt Romney’s Mormonism play out with evangelicals?

However, once the public is put on notice of the vice presidential picks, and after the Democratic and Republican National Conventions have concluded, the bases rally, and we soon forget about the factoring and weighing or positives and negatives of each vice presidential candidate. This is why some folks argue that the vice presidential pick really doesn’t matter. However, Sarah Palin mattered.

Sarah Palin hasn’t become overwhelmingly popular with independent voters, and despite the white washing of her foreign policy and energy experience, she is transparently lacking, and these traits make any objective or rationale person uncomfortable.

Some folks argue that Obama lacks experience, but he doesn’t emanate inexperience, he emanates the opposite—experience. However, Sarah Palin beams with inexperience when she opens her mouth regarding foreign policy and even energy issues. Her gaffe filled interviews with Katie Couric have become legendary. Furthermore, I believe that Palin has done too good of a job at rallying the social conservative base, since her rallies boil over and froth with ignorance and racism. These extremists scare independent and undecided voters to the Obama/Biden ticket. Personally, I believe Obama’s biggest problem is race, since a Stanford University survey found that “many white Americans — particularly Democrats and Independent voters — still hold deep-seated reservations about African Americans.” Given the condition of the United States, Obama should have a stronger lead in my opinion.

Obviously, John McCain picked the wrong vice presidential candidate, and because of his pick, his campaign has been disastrous, since they have constantly been on the defense regarding Sarah Palin. She has made their campaign work much harder, because she, like Joe the plumber, was not vetted. The McCain campaign is forced to rely on the same old talking points to defend Palin (how she took on the  good-old-boy network in Alaska and will do the same in Washington D.C.), because Sarah Palin lacks experience or substance. The fact is she replaced one good-old-boy network for another and any reasonable individual can see this.

Personally, I believe most Americans do not want a Joe six-pack president or vice president running the United States. Certainly, our framers didn’t want Joe six-pack running our country. They wanted someone with intellectual curiosity, knowledge, skills, and experience. Palin runs her credibility off anti-intellectualism and anti-elitism. Hasn’t the world suffered too much damage, since the most influential or strongest country in the world has had an anti-intellectual buffoon at its helm for the last eight years? We need change.