John McCain, in his first television interview since his shocking vice presidential pick, said that he saw in Sarah Palin "a partner and a soul mate."



"This is a person who will help me reform Washington and change the way they do business," McCain told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."



McCain was pressed by Wallace as to whether Palin, a 44-year-old governor who has yet to finish her second year in office, was the most qualified choice he could have made for his No. 2.



"What this brings is a spirit of reform and change that is vital now in our nation's capital," he offered.



And, using a line often deployed by Barack Obama when he's questioned about his lack of foreign policy credentials, McCain said Palin has "got the right judgment."



Palin, he noted, had backed the surge of troops in Iraq.



But McCain did try to point out what experience she had, touting a single visit to Kuwait she made and her role as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard.



And he also contrasted her sharply with Barack Obama.



"When she was in office, he was a community organizer," McCain said, alluding to Palin's time on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council in the '90s.



McCain also used the contrast to tout her maverick tendencies.



"Sen Obama has never taken on the leaders of his own party," McCain said, while making the case that Palin "has been an independent spirit and taken on her own party at every turn."



Seeking to make a positive out of Palin's paucity of national political experience, McCain, himself a fixture among the capital's political elite, boasted that she had never been on "Meet the Press" and was not a regular at "Georgetown cocktail parties."



"I say thank God" about her lack of a Beltway background, he said with a smile.

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