Why mention this now? Because, of course, the argument is being made that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and now the Republican vice-presidential candidate, is lacking foreign-policy experience, perhaps the one chink in the armor of any otherwise all-around solid background. Certainly, she is lacking in that area when compared to John McCain and Joe Biden (but not Barack Obama).

I would add this word of caution, based on the irrefutable history of the modern vice presidency: If Sarah Palin becomes our next vice president, it will take her only weeks to get up-to-speed in foreign policy. That knowledge will come quick. If the “elderly” President John McCain resigned after one term, Palin will have learned an enormous, sufficient amount about the issues dominating American foreign policy.

Even then, good presidents succeed not so much by prior knowledge of issues but their decision-making abilities, their leadership skills, and other characteristics critical to chief executives. The vast majority of presidents over the last 100 years, Democrats and Republicans, from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, were governors with little to no foreign-policy experience. Previous experience is not an indicator of success. There is no correlation whatsoever.

That said, if I were a Barack Obama supporter, I would avoid this criticism of Sarah Palin like the plague. Most Americans understand that a new vice president can quickly get the foreign-policy experience he or she needs in the benign process of serving as the president’s under-study. On the other hand, the typical American will naturally ask: where does a new president get the instant experience he needs?

The flawed argument that Obama supporters are using against Palin is more likely to backfire against the freshman senator and erstwhile community organizer from Illinois.