Three years out, Palin more qualified than Obama back in 2005

On "Hardball" Thursday night, Chris Matthews asked Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) if Sarah Palin was qualified to be president.

Here's the right answer:

Three years out from the 2012 presidential elections, Sarah Palin is far, far more qualified to be president than Barack Obama was three years before he became president. In 2005, Obama had not even yet started serving his measly two years in the United States Senate. Three years before being elected president, the sum of Obama's experience was being a "community organizer" and serving in the Illinois State Legislature. His claim to fame was a great speech read from a teleprompter at the Democratic National Convention. Palin has been giving extensive interviews (yes, on policy matters, too) with no notes in front of her. Obama still can't live without his teleprompter.

Compared to Palin's experience as a mayor, chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and governor of Alaska, Obama's experience and qualifications three years before his election were an embarrassment.

Additionally, Obama was a blank slate and had not been vetted. Hence the Jeremiah Wright, Jim Ayers, etc., debacles. Sarah Palin has been vetted like no other politician in history. There won't be any new information or Rev. Wright-type surprises with Palin in 2012. From the media and the left, the expectations for her are so low (unfairly so) that she can shut them down many, many times between now and 2012, leaving them with egg on their faces.

Palin has proven herself to be no shrinking violet, and is certainly a political force to be reckoned with — something world leaders would understand from the get-go. Not so with Barack Obama. He has a long way to go before he can be considered a leader with a backbone.

Should Sarah Palin choose to run for president in 2012, she will be far and away more ready than Obama was. In fact, so are Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and the entire bench of potential GOP presidential candidates.

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