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During the course of the political history of the United States, the office of the vice president has either been minor or major.

During the years of the Woodrow Wilson term of office, given the fact that the president was ill, the vice president was of great importance. And who cannot forget the care with which Harry S. Truman was chosen as vice president for the final term of Franklin D. Roosevelt who was well known to have been dying.

In more modern times, no vice president during my lifetime has been more important or exercised such great power as has Richard Cheney. Let no one forget that when former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating was a prospective vice presidential choice for George W. Bush in 2000, the vetting process was exhaustive.

Keating had been an FBI agent; an assistant U.S. attorney general and general counsel to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was governor of Oklahoma when homegrown terrorists bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. As a vice presidential prospect, Keating completed a thorough personal questionnaire and reportedly submitted a number of large binders of documents supported by boxes filled to the brim with files. He was personally interviewed and he consulted with a doctor and accountant in order to prepare for his interview.

Cheney, who undoubtedly knew he had the VP job locked up, directed the candidate vetting. Some day perhaps the public will know what, if anything, was discovered about Keating.

Keating did tell the public that the vetting is everything: personal history, family health and it is heavy on financial matters.

Sarah Palin had no such thorough vetting. The Alaska governor delivered a terrific speech in Saint Paul on the penultimate night of the Republican Convention, demonstrating to an enthusiastic crowd and to critical viewers on national television that she is a natural politician with a wit that rivals the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who admittedly has little in common with Palin.

The GOP is counting on Palin to perform in an exemplary way during the remaining days of this campaign. The main question I have is how she will perform over the next four or eight years if the McCain-Palin ticket wins in November. For me this is the only question that really matters.

During George W. Bush's first term on Sept. 11, Cheney was in the Presidential Operations Center Bunker located beneath the White House. By all accounts, he was calm, steady and quite decisive, not hesitating a split second when asked if fighter pilots should engage an airline full of passengers 80-plus miles from Washington, D.C., and closing in. Cheney answered "yes." This plane turned out to be United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field before it could be shot down.

The idea that Cheney was in operational command during the worst chaotic domestic security crisis in modern times reassures me. He had spent his professional life preparing for this moment. He had been a congressional fellow; a sub-cabinet appointee for Richard Nixon; chief of staff for late President Gerald Ford; a member of the House Intelligence Committee and Secretary of Defense.

He well understood national and domestic security as did few others. He also was and is the quintessential Washington insider ridiculed by Palin in her convention speech.

I feel that McCain's pick of Palin for vice president is just another example of his instinct to act impulsively.

In the first news cycle after the selection, many in the media focused on the Alaska governor's right-wing views or her experience - or lack thereof. The real problem with the Palin pick is not what McCain or the media have to say about her, but rather what the choice says about McCain.

I find it disturbing that McCain selected a woman he had spoken with for less than two hours before choosing her.

I do not believe McCain is silly enough to think that there was logic behind his choice of Palin as an appeal to those voters who had voted for Hillary Clinton, but rather that if elected, McCain will be a reactive rather than a reflective leader.

Because I do not feel that the McCain campaign chose to vet Palin, the media must do so.

Roy A. Harrell, Jr. is a rancher from Ozona.