She has only been in her last job, governor of Alaska (a small state), for around 2 years. Only in July this year she asked: “What is it exactly that the vice-president does all day?” (2)Moreover, there is at least a one-in-five chance of John McCain dying of cancer over the next four years, meaning that she would, if voted vice-president, have a one-in-five chance of becoming president. She needs to be ready for that, if she’s to be McCain’s VP ― and it doesn’t appear that she is ready.
(2)http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4641011.ece

She has four children, the oldest of whom is nineteen, the youngest is four months old – and also has Down’s Syndrome. Can she be a parent and a powerful leader? She has a history of putting her family first, and her job second; and, while she is an inspiration to ‘career-women,’ voters should remember that the vice-presidency is no ordinary career. What is admirable in a mother is perhaps not admirable in a vice-president.

Barack Obama’s nomination as presidential candidate somewhat negates the need for someone to break the stereotype.

Palin is said by her deputy communications director to have had to get a new passport in 2007 to visit members of the Alaska National Guard stationed in Kuwait. A potential president of the United States needs to be more familiar with the outside world than this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/29palin.html?ref=us

McCain represents experience and having Palin as VP could jeopardise this image to his voters. Her youth could potentially contrast with and highlight his old age. Palin is only 44 and her good looks and relatively young age do risk weakening McCain’s hold on the “I’m the serious, non-celebrity candidate” argument. Obama already tries to defeat the accusations that he is a celebrity candidate and he would be even more successful if Palin were VP.

Palin has only been Governor for less than two years, of the small-population state of Alaska. People will wonder if she would be ready to be President should McCain die in office. She is also a social conservative and that will be red meat for the Democrats.

Sarah Palin is advertised as a potential candidate who will add dynamism to John Mcain’s campaign, since they look a very dynamic pair. The public is told that she is an ethical and devout Washington outsider who wishes “the good of the people”. As a Republican she leans toward the Republican tradition on many political issues from Gun license laws to abortion. Despite the furor over her daughter’s out of wedlock pregnancy, her family is marketed as being archetypal Americans, she a born again Christian, her husband a snowmobile pro and her son to be deployed in Iraq being 3 of the most pleasing facts.
She is not the right person for the vice presidency I argue because of political objections, not of personal ones such as her short experience.
She is an intimidating figure, as many successful politicians are, and is responsible as the Mayor of Wasilla for censorship of her employees, sacking a police chief for political reasons, and also allegedly wishing to censor certain books because they were deemed to be “morally or socially objectionable”.
The Washington outsider who wishes to tackle corruption is currently under investigation over the dismissal of a state public safety commissioner who is alleged to have sacked because he did not dismiss a state trooper involved in a contentious divorce and child custody battle with her younger sister.
In her time as governor she supported a deal to log 3 million acres of pristine Alaskan wilderness, rejected putting polar bears on the endangered species list, supporting the utilization of Alaska’s natural gas reserves and is also a proponent of offshore oil drilling. Renewable energy and conservation are essential for the long term ‘good’ of the people of the United States and those across the globe.
She is not a role model for cross partisan politics nor does she seek the good of the people as is proposed, but will entrench the conservatism that dominates American politics.

Iit is dubious that a vice president being a woman will shatter glass ceilings. Britain gained a woman Prime minister almost 30 years ago yet less than 1 in 5 representatives in the House of Commons and women in full-time work are being paid, on average, 17 per cent less than their male counterparts, the worst in Europe.
Neither has Sarah Palin any record of promoting gender politics or feminist issues.
It is commonly stated that a VP rarely makes any significant difference when people come to the polls. If this is the case, then people will not be voting for a female VP, they’ll just be voting for the McCain Republican ticket. To suggest that having a woman VP, selected by the nominee not by the voters like Hillary would have been as Democrat nominee or Obama as a black candidate is as Democrat nominee, would shatter the glass ceiling ignores the amount of work still left to do.