Karl Rove: Sarah Palin Not Suitable for Presidency

BY Aliyah Shahid
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The man who helped make George W. Bush president just doesn't think Sarah Palin is up for the nation's top job.

Republican strategist Karl Rove expressed strong doubts about Palin's suitability for president, questioning if the Alaska governor has the "gravitas" for the "most demanding job in the world," the Telegraph reported.

[See a photo gallery of Palin and her family.]

He then blasted her foray into reality television, as Palin's eight-week, TLC series about her home state— which is supposed to give a glimpse into the 46-year-old's family life — debuts next month.

"I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of 'that helps me see you in the Oval Office,'" he told the newspaper.

Rove ripped the trailer for "Sarah Palin's Alaska," where the mother-of-five declares while being outdoors that she "would rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office." He said the statement could damage a potential political campaign.

In an interview set to air Thursday evening on "Entertainment Tonight," Palin said she'd run for president in 2012 "if there's nobody else to do it."

It isn't the first time Rove has slammed those in his own party. Last month, he fired up Republicans after describing Palin's Tea Party pal Christine O'Donnell as having "serious character problems." On her bid for a Senate seat in Delaware, he said "This is not a race we're going to be able to win."

[See slide shows of 10 reasons Palin would make a good president or a bad one.]

Rove added that he didn't think Republican voters had made up their minds about the 2012 race.

And while Rove said the Mama Grizzly had done a "terrific" job running alongside Sen. John McCain in 2008, he said the presidency is an entirely different ballgame.

"Being the vice-presidential nominee on the ticket is different from saying 'I want to be the person at the top of the ticket," he said.

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