Top Alaska Repubs "puzzled" by Palin pick as veep.

Thinkprogress:


The Anchorage Daily News reports that the state’s leading Republicans are expressing shock and bewilderment over John McCain’s selection of their governor as his running mate:

State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news.

“She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?” said Green, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?” […]

State House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was astonished at the news. He didn’t want to get into the issue of her qualifications.

Senator Graham’s fluff response on Palin's zero foreign policy experience:

On CNN yesterday, Wolf Blitzer asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about Palin’s foreign policy background, particularly where she has traveled abroad. Graham didn’t know the answer but said it didn’t matter:

Q: Has she met with world leaders like you have, like Biden has? Has she really gone around the world and done any of those things?

GRAHAM: I don’t know where she’s traveled to…But it’s not meeting people that matters. You know, President Bush met President Putin. And I don’t think it matters just meeting people. You look at people’s judgment.

Here is Rove's response:

Yesterday Rove argued just the opposite with regard to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). He explained on Fox News that Palin was a good choice as McCain’s vice presidential nominee because she was “mayor of the second largest city in Alaska”:

ROVE: She’s a populist, she’s an economic and a social conservative, she’s a reformer, she took on the incumbent governor of the state Frank Murkowski — Republican — beat him in the primary, won an upset in the general election. She’s a former mayor. She’s the mayor of, I think, the second largest city in Alaska before she ran for governor.