Sykes: Palin not ready to be president

“Brilliant!” Charlie Sykes declared after news leaked of McCain tapping Sarah Palin as his veep.

Later in the show he asked, rhetorically, whether she’s ready to be president.

Somebody's asking me, "Charlie, are you seriously arguing that Sarah Palin is ready to be president?"And I'll be honest with you. The answer is no. No she's not. Which is why she's not running for president. Will she be pres--... will she be ready to be president in four years? THe answer is yeah, I think she will.

(About a third of the way through the podcast, while talking to "Julie.")

And with that, Charlie takes experience off the table as an issue in the race. Because Charlie is saying that it's perfectly fine for McCain to pick someone who's not ready for the big job to be one heartbeat away from the big job. Apparently Charlie blithely assumes that a President McCain would emerge from a four year term in sound mind and body. McCain's a fit guy. But no one lives forever, particularly 72-year-olds who've had cancer four times.

As rabid left winger David Frum puts it:

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

And the cries that "she has executive experience" are to laugh. Quick: Which do you think is a more difficult undertaking? Running the quasi-socialist state of Alaska (a state with fewer people than Milwaukee) during a time of peak oil prices or mounting an insurgent candidacy to beat a dominant front runner? Oh, and she drove that little town she ran as mayor into a fiscal ditch.

And while Charlie like to say that "the world is a dangerous place" and Obama's foreign policy is naive at least Obama has positions. You try to track down Palin's positions and you get a big 404.

Meanwhile. she's got her own troopergate scandal, she drove the hamlet she ruled as mayor into a fiscal ditch and she was in favor of the bridge to nowhere before she got inspired by REFORM (and national ridicule and a lack of fed funds) and decided to kill it.

Update: Four out of five doctors are pretty sure McCain won't die on the job, so it's OK to put Palin in there:

“She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long,” said Charlie
Black, one of Mr. McCain’s top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain’s health, which Mr. McCain’s doctors reported as excellent in May.

Also, she's been aware of this whole Iraq war thing since at least 2006:

Palin: I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy. I am very, very proud of the troops we have in Alaska, those fighting overseas for our freedoms, and the families here who are making so many sacrifices.

And, don't worry, it seems she had a penchant for firing people who she felt didn't fully support here before troopergate. McMavericky.