Palin Better Than Romney according to McCain?

Since Mitt Romney is refusing to release the majority of his tax returns, some have hypothesized that John McCain chose Sarah Palin rather than Mitt Romney as his running mate in 2008 after examining  Romney's tax returns.. In an attempt to contradict that speculation, John McCain said: " I did not pick Romney  because Sarah Palin was the better candidate." 

Very interesting.

Did McCain think that Palin was more qualified to assume the role of President of the United States than Mitt Romney? Presumably that should be a candidate's primary concern when choosing a running mate.If that indeed was McCain's thinking, what does this say about Mitt Romney? In the course of the campaign, it became abundantly clear that Sarah Palin was not qualified to be the President. Again, what damning praise that is for Mitt Romney!


Of course, there is another possibility - a more cynical interpretation of what McCain was suggesting. Since he said, "Sarah Palin was the better candidate," perhaps he was implying that Sarah Palin was better for his lackluster campaign, qualifications be damned.  She was an attractive female with very little experience and presumably very little political baggage. She was a darling of that group of Republicans known as the Tea Party. If this was the case, McCain is admitting he didn't care about having a qualified running mate, his main interest was to do what is best for John McCain, not what was best for the country.

And then there is the issue of money. Perhaps this was John McCain's main interest. In 2008, the day after he announced Sarah Palin as his VP running mate, his campaign raked in $7 million in one day, Was Sarah Palin "the better candidate" because she fired up the conservative base to open their wallets?

Whatever John McCain meant with this statement, it does not speak well of his 2008 campaign or the 2012 Republican Presidential candidate.