By Jonathan Allen

There's plenty of time for voters to get to know Sarah Palin and decide whether John McCain's pick of a vice presidential running mate was wild or wise.

For now, the decision sends two clear messages from McCain about his candidacy and message of reform -- one to the Republican Party and one to the general electorate.

Alan Schroeder, who wrote a book on the history of presidential debates, says on the Columbia University Press Blog that one of the criteria for selecting a running-mate needs to be how the chosen candidate would do in the vice-presidential debate held during the campaign. Here are the factors that Schroeder said Barack Obama and John McCain need to take into consideration in their selection of a "vice presidential debater":

• The candidate must understand that the role of a vice presidential debater is to make the negative case against an opponent "even at the expense of one's own affability."
• A running-mate must use the debate to come across as a plausible President. "Dan Quayle's inability to make that case - "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" - stands as an object lesson for all veep debaters."
• McCain's debater needs to have "first-rate television chops" to offset McCain's lack of them.
• Obama needs someone folksy to offset the efforts to paint him as aloof .

The Democratic National Committee has kindly offered McCain a little help vetting potential choice with a page called "The Next Cheney." There, McCain can "learn more about Tim Pawlenty's ethics violations ... Charlie Crist's admiration for Bush ... Mitt Romney's position changes ... John Thune's desire to privatize Social Security ... why Carly Fiorina got tossed out as head of Hewlett-Packard ... "