McCain Says Palin Isn't Qualified To Be President

Yep, that's John McCain, saying that Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani aren't qualified to be president because they served as governor of Massachusetts and mayor of New York City "for a short time." Joe Sudbay points out that Massachusetts has 10 times the population of Alaska, and New York City has 1,000 times more people than Wasilla. Meanwhile, Sam Stein reminds us that both Romney and Giuliani served longer than Palin did. Stein also points out that Palin's interview with Charles Gibson only served to reinforce McCain's assessment of her qualifications:

For critics, Palin's interview with ABC on Thursday evening was an apt demonstration of the criticisms McCain raised about mayors and governors back in October. In her first interview since being tapped as McCain's vice president, Palin showed, in some respects, the limitations of her foreign policy capacity. Time's Joe Klein wrote, "A joke... This woman clearly has no idea what she's talking about. What an embarrassment." Unable to define the Bush Doctrine and contradicting McCain on Pakistan, she acknowledged that she had only visited a handful of countries and never met with another world leader. Then, it was her turn to ridicule the lengthy Washington resume that defines McCain.

"Charlie, again, we've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time," she said to the ABC host. "It is for no more politics as usual and somebody's big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they've had opportunities to meet heads of state."

For Democrats, the revelation that McCain doesn't think Palin is qualified to be president is a cause for both joy and apprehension. On the one hand, McCain has given the Obama campaign an unexpected gift. But Rachel Maddow expressed concern about he fact that this very big gaffe was discovered more than a week after Palin's selection, and it was discovered by the media, not by the Obama campaign. It's time for the Obama team to step up its opposition research.

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Right now, you Brits might be wondering why McCain has a slight lead over Obama in national polls. McCain's recently said that Iran was training al Qaeda operatives (a charge he immediately withdrew), he's said that he doesn't understand economics, he's running on a platform of continuing the policies of the most unpopular president in modern history, and he's nominated a running mate who is clearly unqualified to take over as president, should that become necessary.

Meanwhile, Obama picked a running mate who is one of the most experienced and respected senators in America, he's demonstrated brilliance in his thinking and a firm grasp of the issues, he's a former constitutional law professor, and he's pushing for a change from the disastrous policies of George Bush.

So why is McCain in the lead? Racism, that's why.

(cross posted at appletree)