McCain responds to questions about VP choice

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McCain responds to questions about VP choice

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By Steve Holland

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Reuters) - Republican John McCain rallied behind his vice presidential pick Sarah Palin on Tuesday and his campaign accused Democrat Barack Obama of sexism for questioning her level of experience.

His comments came as the Republican convention to nominate McCain and Palin as their party's candidates was to finally get started, after a delay due to Hurricane Gustav, with President George W. Bush to speak via satellite hookup.

McCain, in Cleveland, said he was excited about Alaska Gov. Palin and predicted a warm welcome for her from Republican delegates when she addressed the convention on Wednesday.

"America's excited and they're going to be even more excited once they see her tomorrow night," he told reporters. "I'm very, very proud of the impression that she's made on all of America and I'm looking forward to serving with her."

Palin's disclosure that her 17-year-old, unmarried daughter is pregnant, in addition to the news that she had hired a private lawyer in an ethics probe in Alaska, led some to raise questions about McCain's judgment and how thoroughly her background was examined in selecting the relatively unknown governor last week as his No. 2.

"My vetting process was completely thorough and I'm grateful for the results," McCain told reporters in Philadelphia after a visit with firefighters.

McCain's campaign fought back hard after Obama told CNN on Monday that Palin's level of experience as a former mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, did not match his own, citing the size of his campaign.

"My understanding is that Gov. Palin's town, Wasilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million dollars a year -- we have a budget of about three times that just for the month," Obama had said.

SEXISM?

McCain adviser Carly Fiorina said she was appalled and accused him of sexism, a charge the Obama camp had faced during Democrat Hillary Clinton's primary battle against him.

"The facts are that Sarah Palin has made more executive decisions as a mayor and governor than Barack Obama has made in his life," Fiorina said.

"Because of Hillary Clinton's historic run for the presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognize and decry sexism in all its forms. They will not tolerate sexist treatment of Gov. Palin," Fiorina said.

The McCain campaign released a copy of Palin's Republican voter registration card to rebut a report in The New York Times that Palin had been a member of the Alaska Independence Party, which wants the state to vote on seceding from the United States, for two years in the 1990s.

"The allegations that Gov. Palin was a member of (the) Alaska Independence Party are false. She's never been a member of the Alaska Independence Party," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

When Palin was announced Friday, Republicans welcomed her entry into the presidential race against Obama and Joe Biden in the November 4 election as bringing a burst of energy to the McCain campaign.

They like her anti-abortion, pro-guns stances and her history of government reform in Alaska in her two years as the state's governor.

There was every indication that McCain and other Republicans were standing by their woman despite the hubbub.

"He absolutely keeps her," said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. "If he drops her, the election is over. There's zero chance that he'll drop her."

Bush was the headliner among Tuesday's speakers, a group that also included former Sen. Fred Thompson, who lost to McCain in the Republican primaries, and close McCain ally Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said the timing of Palin's speech was not yet set. He would not comment on whether she would use that speech to address any of the controversies surrounding her.

But her remarks will be "the most important speech the nominee will give in the course of the election" because of the large television audience, he said.

Posted 9/2/08 4:15 PM