Cheney says Romney should avoid Palin ‘mistake’

WASHINGTON DC, United States – Former Republican vice president Dick Cheney advised his party’s candidate in the upcoming US elections to pick a running mate with more experience than Sarah Palin.

Palin was Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election, when the party was defeated by the November election’s Democratic incumbent Barack Obama.

Cheney qualified McCain’s choice to run with Palin as a “mistake,” in an interview with ABC News, broadcast in excerpt Sunday, July 29.

“I like Governor Palin,” Cheney said, “But based on her background, she had only been governor for, what, two years?”

“I don’t think she passed that test (…) of being ready to take over” as president, he added.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney has yet to choose a vice presidential candidate, roughly three months before the vote.

If Romney heeds Cheney’s warning, he may not choose potential running mates whose experience levels may welcome unfavorable comparisons to Palin’s, such as New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

The two leading contenders to share Romney’s White House ticket are slightly more seasoned Ohio Senator Rob Portman, who may secure popularity in the crucial swing state, and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who was elected twice.

In May, the last Republican candidate McCain offered his own advice for the Romney campaign.

“I think it’s a person that he knows he could trust, and the primary — the absolute, most important aspect is, if something happened to him, would that person be well qualified to take that place?” McCain said, in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.” – Agence France-Presse