Sarah Palin has certainly had a big influence in this year’s Republican primaries, and she could very well leverage this into a top-tier position in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. But for some reason, a bunch of Republicans have had a hard time saying she actually is qualified to be President. It’s almost become a litmus test of sorts for Republican candidates this cycle — after Palin backed them, will they really go so far as to say Palin could be president?
[TPM SLIDESHOW - Governor Sarah Palin: A Long Goodbye]
Some of these candidates have displayed a learning curve of sorts — fumbling on the question at first, then sort of straightening up later. Let’s take a quick look at a few recent examples.
• Joe Miller, the Republican nominee for Senate in Alaska — who won his upset victory in the primary thanks to Palin’s support — could only affirm that yes, Palin does meet the basic qualifications outlined in Article II of the Constitution. “Let me make this unequivocal,” Miller said. “She’s done phenomenal things for this country, there’s no question about that. She’s elevated the debate, critical to our race, and let me tell you also, we know what qualified means, don’t we? We know that we have a constitutional requirement for somebody that’s gonna run for President. Of course she’s qualified.”
Believe it or not, this was Miller’s attempt at damage control, after he got an angry email from Todd Palin, for not sufficiently supporting Palin.
• Even Christine O’Donnell, the religious-right activist and surprise GOP nominee for Senate in Delaware, has had a hard time with this question. When asked by CNN whether Palin was qualified, she would only respond: “Is she running for president? Again, hypothetical.”
• One GOPer who is doing much better now is Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO and current Republican nominee for Senate in California. She has now gone on the record and told CNN: “I certainly think she’s qualified to be president of the United States.”
Fiorina has some special history here, from when she was a McCain campaign surrogate in 2008, when she committed an infamous gaffe when asked by a radio host whether Palin had the experience to run a major company like HP. “No, I don’t,” responded Fiorina. “But you know what? That’s not what she’s running for.” She then made an amusing attempt at damage control, saying that McCain couldn’t run a major corporate either — and neither could Barack Obama or Joe Biden, but they’re all running for national office and not for CEO. She was then absent from the campaign trail for a couple weeks.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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