Palin Suggests Executive Experience Is Key Presidential Attribute

From CBS News' Scott Conroy:

(JEFFERSON CITY, MO.) - Here on her second stop of a six-rally final day of the campaign, Sarah Palin briefly went off script to question whether a United States senator has the right kind of experience to be president.

Palin set up her remarks with a familiar attack on Barack Obama’s relative newcomer status.

“If you think about it, Barack Obama’s record, what is in his record?” she asked the crowd of over 15,000 who were gathered around the state capitol. “What has he accomplished? He spent about 300 days in the U.S. Senate before becoming a presidential candidate.”

Then Palin went off script to voice the frustrations she had shared with her husband.

“Todd and I were talking about this, has he ever wielded a veto pen?” she asked. “Has he ever had to make the tough decisions on how to govern best for the people whom he should be held accountable to?”

Neither Obama nor Palin’s running mate, John McCain, has ever been in a position to veto a bill, as Palin has in her role as governor of Alaska. Still, Palin said that McCain had the right kind of experience needed to be president.

“He is untested, as his own running mate said, throughout the primaries Joe Biden said, ‘You’re not ready for the presidency,’” Palin said. “And his other opponents in the primary, too, said, ‘You’re not ready to be the president.’ Now John McCain is. We need a leader who is ready on day one.”