Now that Sen. Barack Obama has been canonized — er, nominated — by the Democrats in Denver, it’s time to begin really wondering: Who is he? That’s why looking at his friends is so important, especially one friend who was a radical terrorist in the 1960s.

The publicity about Obama provides little information, because so much of it consists of valentines from the press corps. Obama's books and speeches raise more questions than they answer.

Take his acceptance speech Thursday night. He bewailed the nation's economic status and world political stature, but he said nothing concrete about what he or his party would do about it. His stirring rhetoric is short on facts and details and, more important, on real insight into what he believes.

Since he has done so little, we can't very well judge him by his deeds.

National leaders must convey a sense of who they are and what they believe. Think of Ronald Reagan or Harry Truman, for example. But that's where Obama fails. And that's why his friendships and associations are so important and why his association with William Ayers is so troubling.

Ayers, a founder of the left-wing Weather Underground that bombed the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon, has never disavowed his service in that terrorist organization. Obama has called him "respectable" and "mainstream."

And though Obama has denied it, the two men have been closely associated. They live in the same Chicago neighborhood. Ayers and his wife, the 1960s radical Bernardine Dohrn, hosted a fundraiser for Obama when he first ran for the Illinois Senate in 1995.

Last week more came out about their relationship. Journalist Stanley Kurtz prodded a library at the University of Illinois, Chicago, to release a treasure trove of papers about a school "reform" project known as the Annenberg Challenge that aimed to immerse young students in leftist ideas. It turns out that Ayers helped start the project, and Obama became its chairman.

Obama and Ayers attended the same board meetings, retreats and at least one press conference, and met and talked often from 1995-2001. And the 132 boxes of Annenberg papers may yet yield more information.

It's no wonder that Obama's campaign tried to block release of the papers by the library, and has tried to censor ads about the Ayers-Obama relationship.

How could a man who wants to be president work so closely with an unrepentant terrorist? We know how a Harry Truman or a Ronald Reagan would react to a former leader of a group who took the side of America's enemies, and who boasts even now of doing so.

It could be that Obama is so lost in ethereal liberal notions that he is blind to the reality of terrorism, violence and hate. That's hardly a qualification for dealing with ruthless leaders such as Russian President Putin or Iran's mullahs.

There are philosophers who talk of moral idiots: perhaps Obama, for all his intellectual gifts, lacks moral intelligence. Obama said Sen. John McCain "just doesn't get it" on economics. But maybe Obama just doesn't "get it" about the reality of evil in the world and why it must be fought.

That alone, in the eyes of many, should disqualify him from occupying the Oval Office.

McCain's pick keeps campaign rocking

Sen. John McCain's surprise pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his running mate has stunned the political world. She's a first-term governor with five children, and a husband who is a champion snowmobile racer.

Critics point out that she's younger than Obama, and has a shorter political resume. She has more experience in commercial fishing than in foreign policy or national finance. On the other hand, she has more executive experience than Obama ... and McCain ... and Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic pick for vice president -- put together.

It's said that her short resume undercuts the GOP jab at Obama -- specifically that he lacks experience. Of course, he's running for commander in chief, and she's running for vice president, a post described by its first occupant, John Adams, as "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." So maybe that doesn't matter too much.

On the other hand, if the Republican ticket wins, she'd be a heartbeat away from the presidency held by a man in his 70s.

Others say she's shown she's reform-minded. She opposed the "bridge to nowhere," the quintessential symbol of pork-barrel politics, and she's clashed with big oil companies, and won. The Republicans could certainly use that kind of integrity. Choosing her may be a way to wrest the "change" label from Obama, who loosened his grip on that slogan by picking Biden.

Conservatives have applauded Palin, but doubtless the Obama camp is mining her record for actions and comments it can attack. In theory, she could drain from Hillary Clinton's supporters any enthusiasm they might retain for Obama, but this seems like a different group of women.

The selection seems a tacit acknowledgement by McCain that he faces an uphill fight and thus must gamble to win. The pick is already being called a "hail Mary" pass.

One thing is for sure: Palin's selection will make this election season, once expected to be a real snooze, into something much more interesting.