Now, maybe that’s not entirely fair. She was, after all, the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1996 to 2002. But let this serve as an illustration of how idiotic it is to compare Palin’s level of experience with Obama’s. Palin served as “executive” for a population of less than 6,000 people, little even by small-town standards. Obama’s state senate constituency, by contrast, was made up of at least 45,000 people–and those are just the ones who voted for him.

Let’s look at where they each were in January 2007. Palin was the newly elected governer of a state inhabited by 683,000 souls. Obama had already logged two years in the U.S. senate representing a state of about 12.8 million. Okay, since each state has two senators, let’s call that a constituency of 6.4 million. It’s still nearly ten times larger than the entire state of Alaska. Ten times larger!

The internet didn’t know who Sarah Palin was in 2001. And except for those 5,469 parka-clad Wasilla residents, neither did the nation. Thankfully, the country is finally starting to see through the McCain campaign’s attempts to turn Palin’s molehill of a resume into a mountain of experience.

Be sure to tune in to the VP debate Thursday night. Watching Palin squirm while trying to defend her inch-deep experience will be uncomfortable but definitely worth it.