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What It Takes to Be President

There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Sarah Palin has the necessary qualifications to be Vice President or, if necessary, President.  As such, McCain supporters have been desperately trying to come up evidence that she does, claiming(link is external) that she has foreign policy experience because Alaska is near Russia, that she has national security credentials(link is external) because she is "commander in chief" of the Alaska National Guard, and that(link is external) “she knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.”

Those efforts to prop up Palin came crashing down yesterday(link is external) when top McCain’s surrogate Carly Fiorina admitted that Palin was unqualified to run a company such as Hewlett Packard - a comment for which Fiorina has now been “disappeared(link is external).”  

But as it turns out, concerns about experience and qualifications aren’t really all that important anyway, as Sen. Elizabeth Dole learned yesterday while hanging out(link is external) with the good folks from the local Christian Coalition affiliate.  All that really matters is the fact that McCain is a “Christian and a hero”: 

Among those on bus were U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole; Linda Daves, North Carolina Republican Party chairman; Buddy Roemer, former Louisiana governor who is campaigning for John McCain; state Sen. Robert Pittenger, candidate for lieutenant governor; and Jack Sawyer, candidate for N.C. secretary of state.

More than 550 people came out for the 15th annual God and Country Banquet sponsored by the Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition. The group recognized candidates attending from parties, but the dinner was highlighted by speeches from Roemer, Dole and Pittenger.

"I want to live in a godly nation," said Walter Leake, coalition chairman and emcee of the event. Speakers included testimonies about their faith with their appeals for votes.

[Roemer] was clearly stumping for his longtime friend and told the story of McCain's faith during his prisoner-of-war experience.

"Being a hero doesn't make you a good president," he said. "But being a Christian and a hero is a good start where I come from."

Like McCain, Palin is a Christian and is certainly being treated like a hero(link is external), so I guess that’s all we really need to know.