How many interviews?

John McCain deserves credit for turning the ’08 race upside down by putting Sarah Palin in a position to be just a heart-beat away from leading the free-world.

Having said that, as a small business owner, I’m appalled by reports that McCain only interviewed Palin once.

At our company, even interns — folks who will work for us maybe 10 or 20 hours a week and make $12 an hour — get interviewed at least eight separate times over the course of six to eight weeks. I interview each possible intern hire at least twice myself.

Why invest so much time even on junior staffers? Because staff are 99% of a business. We know that even the most junior person may one day take on a senior role. (I first worked with Miklos Gaspar, who co-founded Pressflex and today runs our Budapest office, in 1994 when he was an intern in a business I managed.)

In taking so much time and effort to vet potential junior hires, we’re not focusing on our immediate needs. We know that diligent up front vetting is the smartest investment we can make in the future. Not every person we hire works out, but we vastly increase our odds of success with scrupulous hiring.

Does the USA not deserve at least the same level of due diligence that we apply to interns for a possible future president?

One interview — if that’s what happened — wasn’t bold. It was reckless.