GOP senator: A 'stretch' to say Palin is qualified
WASHINGTON - Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a "stretch" to say she's qualified to be president.
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Could Palin lead the country if GOP presidential nominee John McCain could not?
"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.
Wow, someone at the AP editorial desk must have either stopped drinking the McCain kool-aid or they lost a lot in the stock market this past week. The AP has largely been carrying water for the GOP this cycle, especially their Washington Bureau.
Anyhow, this is a great money quote from Hagel, an apparent friend of Obama, that Obama can now use in the debates and possibly in ads.
It'll give the press more opportunities to go after McCain's decision making abilities and McCain's willingness to insult the intelligence of the American people by insisting that Palin has the experience to run the country in the event McCain cannot.
Let's hope that the floodgates are opening in the press rooms across America so that the McCain brand can take more damage and Obama can win in a landslide. At the very least, using this Hagel quote in letters to the editor to daily and weekly papers could be very beneficial.
Oh, and I wonder if something like this could put at least one of Nebraska's EV's in play too. Nebraska, like Maine, apportions their EV's by the congressional district method and if Hagel's not buying on McCain, maybe Nebraskans won't either.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Update 1:
By popular demand, one of the more devastating quotes:
McCain and other Republicans have defended Palin's qualifications, citing Alaska's proximity to Russia. Palin told ABC News, "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
Hagel took issue with that argument. "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."
Update 2:
The AP version of Yahoo seems to be an edited version of the original that appears at the Omaha World-Herald: Sen. Hagel doubts Palin's ready
As you can see, the original version doesn't say "GOP Senator" it merely ID's Hagel by name. Maybe they don't consider Hagel a Republican in Nebraska? I sure don't know.
That said, here's the end portion of the Omaha World-Herald version, which gives some additional context to the "I think it's a stretch" quote.
The Omaha version also states that Hagel has no plans to endorse either candidate, which is telling since Hagel endorsed McCain in 2000.
Hagel offered a couple caveats on his assessment of Palin: Experience is not the only qualification for elected officials — judgment and character are indispensable.
Washington experience isn't the only kind of experience, Hagel said, and he noted that many White House occupants have been governors with no time inside the Beltway.
"But I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world," Hagel said. "I think that's just a requirement."
So is Palin qualified to be president?
"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.
Hagel supported McCain's unsuccessful bid for president in 2000.
Hagel said voters ultimately will decide between McCain and Obama, and he hopes that the debates will refocus both campaigns on the important issues of the day, including the economy, energy policy and international relations.
One recent squabble between the campaigns revolved around whether Obama was being sexist toward Palin when he used a turn of phrase about putting lipstick on a pig.
That kind of back-and-forth is not what the American people want or need, Hagel said.
"It's terrible," he said. "It debases the system."