I’m definitely for school choice! I don’t mind at all that part of our mortgage payment goes to support the schools in our neighborhood and I want them to be the best they can be. But I firmly believe people ought to have a choice. As a home educating family, we don’t want or need federal or state $$ to teach our children-we just want to be able to do it in peace without worrying about interference. I am all for vouchers for those who would wish to attend a different public school than the one in the district where they reside or who would wish to attend a private/parochial school and cannot affor the tuition.

ST. PAUL — Four days into Hurricane Palin and the decision by John McCain to pick the Alaska governor as his vice presidential running mate looks every bit as big a gamble as it did when he introduced her to the public last Friday. “Sarah who?” has been replaced by, “Who is Sarah?” and “What was John McCain thinking?” has been replaced by, “What did John McCain know?”

Each day has brought new revelations about Sarah Palin that raise questions about her political biography and philosophy. Not all of them are accurate, but many are. The McCain campaign is chasing ghosts as it tries to keep up with everything flying across the Internet. Tamping down inaccurate information is only part of the challenge. They are attempting to shape her introduction before others can.

Was she a past supporter of Pat Buchanan? He says yes; she and the campaign say no, not really, though she did put on a Buchanan button when he was in the state during one of his campaigns. Was she a member of the fringe American Independence Party? The campaign says no, that she has been a registered Republican since 1982. Was she a friend or foe of earmarks? It depends on when you look at her public career.

All these disclosures call into question just how thoroughly her selection was weighed by McCain and his top advisers. Palin is now in the spotlight, but so too are McCain and his campaign advisers.

Did McCain seriously turn to Palin only near the end of the process, after he was talked out of picking Joe Lieberman? Or was she also sitting there as a genuine prospect who, in the end, fit the message McCain wants to send about himself this fall?

McCain’s campaign certainly has been consistent and unequivocal: Palin received the same full vet as did other who were truly under consideration. “The vetting process was completely thorough and I’m grateful for the results,” McCain said Tuesday in Philadelphia amid continuing questions about how he finally settled on someone as little known, and as little discussed, as Palin.

But there continue to be indications that her selection was done in haste and that the final vetting may have come very late. McCain advisers will not talk about the timeline for the vetting, only that she underwent the same scrutiny as others on the short list.

No one doubts that her selection has energized this convention. For McCain that is an unexpected boost. His inner circle has been blown away by the reaction. “The positive reaction from base we expected,” one close adviser to McCain said. “The overwhelmingly positive was a surprise.”

Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Tuesday morning that he has been struck at just how much Palin has affected the mood among Republicans, particularly women. The reaction to her, he said, is every bit as strong among Republican women at this convention as Barack Obama’s candidacy has been to African Americans.

But Palin’s public portrait is far from complete. Other than that she is very popular in Alaska, what really is known about how she has governed, how she has related to legislators, what her executive style is, what issues she cares most about?

“We’re letting you guys paint the picture [of Palin] before we even get into the game,” campaign manager Rick Davis told Post reporters and editors Tuesday morning. “That’s certainly not something that’s going to inure to our long-term benefit, so of course we’re going to get into the act.”

The campaign’s situation is complicated by the fact that Palin has gone private to prepare for her speech to the convention later this week, to undergo a series of briefings on domestic and foreign policy issues and to acquaint her and her family with the rigors of a national campaign.

“We had a surprise and we chose the surprise rather than sort of methodically moving it out into the public domain and playing the game you normally play with a presidential candidate of being able to lay down a pretty good slick of information and expectation,” he said. “We didn’t put anybody out.”

So much now depends on Palin when she reemerges later this week. Her speech will be closely watched, but there is little doubt that she will pass that test, given the preparation underway. Then she will begin campaigning again. She will undergo interviews with the press. She will have a debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden.

Meanwhile, a new Alaska pipeline of information will deliver a steady flow of facts to the rest of the country. Her introduction has had pluses and minuses, but no one would describe it as other than tumultuous, given the surprise nature of her selection, the announcement that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and the effort by her opponents to portray her in an unflattering light.

McCain saw himself in Sarah Palin, his advisers claim. Will she prove to have McCain’s countenance and durability, or will she be a political shooting star?