Sen. John Kerry made a brief appearance Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

The failed presidential candidate criticized Sen. John McCain's choice for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Kerry didn't slam her lack of experience. That's understandable since Palin has more governmental, executive experience than McCain, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden combined. And that's not saying much. Still it dampens the argument.

Nor did he criticize Palin's beliefs about abortion being wrong. That's understandable, as well, since reproductive issues have proved so unproductive for Democrats.

No, Kerry focused in on Palin's opinion about global warming.

“She doesn't even believe global warming is caused by humans!” the swift-boated, Massachusetts senator exclaimed.

Democrats may want to be careful about challenging Palin on energy issues. If there's an area of experise she brings to the national debate, it's energy, its production and importance... and energy's alleged role in the warming of the earth.

I say alleged, because although there is convincing evidence that the earth's average temperature has increased by about a half of degree Celcius during the 20th Century, there's additional evidence that the earth warmed by about the same amount in the 19th and 18th centuries, and even possibly by as much in the 17th Century as the earth recovered from the period known as the Little Ice Age, as described in a previous column in February of last year (http://elynews.com/articles/2007/02/09/opinion/oped02.txt).

This linear increase in temperature predates our massive consumption of fossil fuels.

So what's the evidence that the warming is human-caused. Basically, it's that some scientists have warned for decades that an increase in CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere could lead to the greenhouse effect based on theories and computer models.

Advances in our technological abilities led us to discover that temperatures did indeed increase during the 20th Century, as did carbon dioxide emissions. And science hasn't yet found another mechanism to explain the warming. Therefore carbon dioxide is the default candidate.

And while there's a growing amount of empirical evidence that the earth is warming, there's still precious little evidence that man is the cause.

Palin, to her credit, has noted that lack of evidence.

During the run-up to her 2006 victory in the Alaska governor's race, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News she wasn't sure climate change wasn't simply part of a natural warming cycle.

"I will not pretend to have all the answers," she told the newspaper, while cautioning against "overreaction."

"A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location," she told Newsmax magazine. "I'm not one though, who would attribute it to being man-made."

"She has supported oil drilling in some of the most ecologically sensitive areas in Alaska, even when it meant sacrificing polar bears, beluga whales, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Greenpeace's Alaska Global Warming Campaigner Melanie Duchin told the Washington Post on Friday.

"Despite her advocacy for expanded oil and gas drilling, Palin has done almost nothing to promote the clean energy sources that can help solve global warming, which is already having major negative consequences in her state," Duchin said.

That anti-Palin argument may actually serve as a Palin endorcement for motorists still paying excessives prices at the pump.

And Palin has some credible credentials on energy policies.

Palin served as an ethics commissioner for the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission 2003-2004. She resigned the post in protest over the lack of ethics of fellow GOP leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing about legal violations and conflicts of interest with oil companies.

After her resignation, she filed formal complaints against one of her fellow commissioners, Randy Ruedrick, who also was chairman of the state GOP party, and the state's Attorney General Gregg Renkes. Both resigned, with Ruedrick fined a whopping $12,000.

Palin had served two terms on her hometown city council, 1992-1996, when she challenged the incumbent mayor, criticizing the high taxes and wasteful spending in city goverment. She won and withstood a recall effort by the ex-mayor and sheriff.

She cut property taxes 60 percent, and reduced her own salary. The former mayor tried to unseat her in 1999, but was defeated by a larger margin than the first election.

Palin, who also served as president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors, then looked to higher office. In 2002 she ran for lieutenant governor, but finished second out of a field of four candidates.

After Frank Murkowski quit his long-held seat in the U.S. Senate to become governor, Palin applied to replace him. Murkowski, instead, appointed his daughter, Lisa, to the post. But he appointed Palin as an ethics commissioner to the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission.

That eventually cost him his job.

Palin ran against the powerful governor and ex-senator in the GOP primary and won. She then defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles, without financial support from the state GOP hierarchy.

As governor she axed 35 political appointments made by Murkowski as he left office, before turning her attention to energy. In June of last year, she signed the Alaska Gasoline Inducement Act (AGIA) into law, which, according to the Anchorage Daily News, she had backed since the bill was introduced in March 2007.

The AGIA will allow building a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope, providing more of the T. Boone Pickens' pick for a transitional vehicle fuel until alternative sources are developed.

High gas prices have meant increased gas-tax revenues for Alaska. In response, she axed the state gas tax and sent Alaskans a $1,200 rebate.

As a reformer, much is being made of Palin's opposition to the infamous “bridge to nowhere.”

In introducing his surprize running mate, McCain said, “She put a stop to the ‘bridge to nowhere' that would have cost taxpayers $400 million.”

McCain had long opposed the earmark.

But according to the Alaskan press, Palin's opposition is a new-found position. She originally supported the plan, and federal funding.

The Anchorage Daily News, on Oct. 22, 2006, asked gubernatorial candidate Palin, “Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now - while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.”

But a year later, as governor, she said Ketchikan needed improved air facilities, but the $398 million bridge connecting Ketchikan to Gravina Island was no longer possible.

“Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project and it's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island,” she said on Sept. 21, 2007.

As for saving the federal taxpayers money, it didn't. The funding was used on other Alaskan road projects.

Palin also is being investigated for attempting to transfer the Alaskan Commissioner of Public Safety to head-up the state alcohol control board. He rejected the transfer and resigned. He has claimed it was retribution because he refused to fire a state trooper who had undergone a nasty divorce from Palin's sister. The Alaskan Legislature is investigating the allegation.

Gosh, you mean this attractive, personable mother of five may be just another politican and tells us what we want to hear?

And Obama laid out a lengthy list in his acceptance speech last week of goals sure to please just about everyone in the country... heck, in the whole world.

No matter who gets elected, we common folk are going to have lower taxes; cheaper gas prices; yet-undeveloped, clean-coal technology; better schools; better national security; better relations with foreign nations; and a whole new way of doing business in Washington!

The cynical among us, might just call that more pie in the sky that will never reach our plates.