The bizarro world of Sarah Palin and John McCain

Sarah Palin's embarrassing interview with Charlie Gibson last night exposes the gargantuan holes in the armor of "readiness" the McCain camp has tried to cloak her in. For two weeks, John McCain has declared Sarah Palin "ready to be VP (and President)" thanks to her experience as mayor of minuscule Wasilla, Alaska and her less than two years as Governor. Yet in the fall of 2007, McCain verbally slapped Republican contenders Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney for their lack of experience as mayor and Governor, respectively. Watch the clip.

In McCain-Palin's bizarro world, experience that wasn't good enough for Giulani or Romeny is plenty good enough for Palin. In their parallel universe, Palin is more experienced despite the fact that she was mayor of Wasilla (pop. around 5,000) for less time than Giulani was mayor of New York (pop. 8.3 million). She has been Governor of Alaska (2006-present), the nation's 47th most populous state, less time than Romeny was Governor of Massachusetts (2003-2007).

McCain has even suggested that Palin has more national security experience than Obama because she is head of the Alaskan National Guard. Of course Governors only command Guard activity within their states. They do not have jurisdiction over troop activities abroad nor do they have the capacity to send troops abroad - the Pentagon does that.

McCain (lamely) tried to dress up his turkey of a pick by telling Fox News recently:

"I'm so proud that she has displayed the kind of judgment and she has the experience and judgment as an executive... She's been commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard ... she's had judgment on these issues. She's had 12 years of elected office experience, including traveling to Kuwait, including being involved in these issues. I'm so proud she has the experience and judgment as an executive."

As he stumbles to make a case for her "judgement" and "experience", McCain just digs a deeper hole. After seeing Palin's interview with Gibson, McCain can probably see China from the bottom of his hole but I suspect he'll keep digging because he has no other option.