Matthews Panel: Palin Not VP Caliber Now But Fine For Prez In 2012

If you needed any more evidence that the media meme regarding Sarah Palin not being qualified for vice president is nothing but liberal propaganda from America's Obama-loving press you got it on Sunday's "The Chris Matthews Show."

After the panel of New York magazine's John Heilemann, the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut, NBC's Andrea Mitchell, and the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page unanimously concluded that Palin was a horrible choice as John McCain's runningmate due to her lack of qualifications, they all agreed that she will be a serious candidate for president in 2012 if Obama wins this November.

Interesting hypocrisy, wouldn't you agree?

Readers are strongly encouraged to strap themselves in before proceeding to the following partial transcript of this astonishingly revealing segment (video embedded upper-right):

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Sarah Palin gave John McCain a big boost coming out of the Republican convention. But then came those network interviews, especially the one with Katie Couric. Her troubling answers made her an object of ridicule on late-night TV...Things have only gone downhill from there. In the latest NBC poll, even Republicans listed Sarah Palin as the biggest drag on John McCain. Clarence, a plus or minus all told, this selection for Vice President?

CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Short-term plus, long-term minus. I mean, that term was about ten days, because it has been one bad news episode after another. Plus, the very fact they refused to let her face the press in a news conference tells everybody she's not ready and even in the one-on-ones she has the same kind of problem.

MATTHEWS: You used the phrase she's not ready. When she first was presented to the public, rather attractive, surprising, novelty, all that, likable, then somebody changed the topic from, the question from is she a good junior partner on this ticket, the new person on the block, or is she ready to be president at this moment and if not she's not ready to be president right at this moment, she's not ready to be VP. Somebody changed the question and that's killed them, I think.

Stop the tape: Is Matthews being serious, or astoundingly obtuse? After all, it was folks like him, Keith Olbermann, the panelists in his presence, and the entire Obama-loving media that changed the question about Palin from qualifications as vice president to readiness to sit in the Oval Office. But I digress:

ANNE KORNBLUT, WASHINGTON POST: Well, look, and they never had a strategy to respond to it. There was no, look, we're taking a first-term governor who obviously doesn't have that much experience but we're going to do a series of events, a series of meetings to roll her out and show that she really is ready. There seemed to be no strategy except to just bring her out, hide her from the press for a while, then start doing interviews. It seemed extremely random. It was interesting in their joint interview when they said that Colin Powell never even met her. Well, why not? Why didn't they arrange a meeting to try and convince people she was ready?

MATTHEWS: Did she pick them or did they pick her? The handlers around McCain. I get the feeling she had a hand in this.

ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS: Well, she was promoting herself, she was very actively promoting herself for a number of months from Alaska and that was a coming together of like-minded people but it shows how shallow, I think, and cynical the choice was to a lot of the critics. The critics look at her and look at what's happened and say not ready, not a serious choice, and what he needed to do was reach independents. He had to make sure that the base was there. But he needed a strategy for independent voters and she was the absolute worst strategy for that.

MATTHEWS: Suppose he had gone to the default button and gone with a Romney or a Pawlenty, the obvious choice. Would he be better off now or not, really?

JOHN HEILEMANN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Probably not.

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

Stop the tape: I thought it was the Palin pick that submarined McCain's campaign. Now, minutes into the discussion, we find that neither Heilemann nor Matthews believes this is the case:

HEILEMANN: I mean, I think, again, you come back to the financial crisis and his terrible handling of it. And maybe Romney would have helped him to kind of figure his way out through that thicket a little bit better. But I just, to your point, Chris, I don't think anybody changed the question. I think that's always the question. The question is are you ready to be president? It just takes us a little while to get to it sometimes. Eventually we got there and she couldn't answer it.

Now, watch how the story changes when Matthews asks his panel to fast-forward to the day after Election Day:

MATTHEWS: Well, let's get to where we're headed now. It's November 5, it's November 5, the day after the big election this year. Is she the first in line to run for 2012?

KORNBLUT: I think she certainly has a claim to, and she seems like she's getting ready herself ready for it, sure.

MATTHEWS: She running or ready?

PAGE: Yeah, sure, first finish out the gubernatorial term, get a talk show host job. I think there are things she's very good at. She just isn't prepared as far as the information in her head, quick recall, the analysis, that's all.

MATTHEWS: Andrea, is this the candidate here?

MITCHELL: Sure. It's the talk show deal. It's Sarah Palin versus Huckabee. The battle of the talk show hosts.

Wait...it's gonna get better:

MATTHEWS: Could she win the nomination, John? Is she a real likely candidate to win this thing?

HEILEMANN: She could, and I'll tell you why. A, she's the most popular person in the Republican Party right now. And B, as the conservative movement splinters, as it's clearly, there is going to be a bloodbath after this election, there's going to be a huge bloc built around populism and social conservativism and she is both those things and she's a compelling figure, and she's got a lot of fans out there.

So, let's recap. As a vice presidential candidate in 2008, Palin is:

• "an object of ridicule"
• "the biggest drag on John McCain"
• "long-term minus"
• "not ready"
• "doesn't have that much experience"
• "not a serious choice"
• a "shallow" and "cynical" choice
• "the absolute worst strategy"

Yet, the day after the election is over:

• Palin is "the first in line to run for 2012"
• She "certainly has a claim to" run in 2012
• "there are things she's very good at"
• "It's Sarah Palin versus Huckabee"
• "she's the most popular person in the Republican Party right now"
• "she's a compelling figure"
• "she's got a lot of fans out there"

Wow! Talk about what a difference a day makes.

According to all these folks, she's unqualified to be vice president on November 4. But on November 5, if Obama wins, she's totally qualifed to start her 2012 presidential run.

Hmmm. Just imagine how much more qualified she'd be in either 2012 or 2016 if she was vice president until then instead of a talk show host.

I guess this logic magically eluded these shills.

Why is that?