What if...?

So, I was thinking about the absolutely horrible choice of Sarah Palin and what a disaster it's turned out to be, and the fact that Biden also seems to have been at best a neutral pick, and it occurred to me that Obama's pick is somewhat underrated for this reason: he's not Tim Kaine. Now, I worked my ass off for the Kaine campaign in VA in 2005. Since then, I've become somewhat frustrated by his less than brilliant governing, although I admit that it is at least partly due to the ridiculous partisanship of the House Republicans. However, imagine the different reaction to the Palin pick had Kaine been the Dem VP nominee. Kaine is similarly inexperienced, although certainly still more experienced than Palin. He is similarly unknown, and therefore would have similarly unleashed a storm of investigative reporting. Part of the reason Palin's been such a disaster is that she's managed to stay in the news consistently, and too often the stories focus on her lack of relevant knowledge (although she also has her fair share of scandals, as well). If Kaine had been the pick, wouldn't he have unleashed a similar response? Certainly he's not as attractive as Palin, and he is not under investigation for abuse of power (that I know of), but... what if?

For the record: I was terrified of Obama picking Kaine for a variety of reasons, and utterly thrilled when it turned out to be Biden - not only is he not Kaine, but he's great on women's issues.