Palin as McCain's VP: Where does it leave the experience debate?

As recently as this morning, McCain advisers were telling the NYT that Sarah Palin's lack of experience -- she's been in office only 18 months -- would undercut McCain's criticisms of Obama's short record.

As reports circulated on television and cable networks on Friday morning that Senator John McCain might have selected Ms. Palin as his running mate, McCain advisers expressed bewilderment. One adviser said that while Mr. McCain thinks highly of Ms. Palin, who is opposed to abortion rights and would be welcomed by Christian conservatives, her less than two years in office would undercut one of the McCain campaign’s central criticisms of Senator Barack Obama — that he is too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief.

“While it’s a dramatic and interesting choice, it would make the argument he’s making difficult to make,” said one McCain adviser.