Doug Mataconis · · 10 comments

Yesterday’s Sarah Palin controversy du jour concerned Todd Palin’s apparent anger at the fact that Joe Miller, the Alaska Senate candidate who beat Lisa Murkowski in August, had hedged his bets when asked whether he thought the former Governor was qualified to be President. The Palin camp said late yesterday that there had been a misunderstanding, but Miller’s comments last night are unlikely to end the story:

MEGYN KELLY: Let me just put it out there then: are you willing to say now whether you think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President?

JOE MILLER: You know, I’ll tell you the exact same thing that I just said this last week while I was in D.C., and that is — she, if she puts her name in the hat and that’s totally up to her, there are a number of others that are there, as well, any of which would be a far better Presidential candidate than what we’ve got right now in the Oval Office — but her decision to run is hers and hers alone.

It’s not our decision as to whether or not she runs. It certainly is a sideline to what’s going on in Alaska, and we aren’t going to fall into the trap again that the media’s trying to plant and create this as being some sort of a struggle between the Murkowskis and Palins, because that’s not what this race…

KELLY: [interrupting]…. I hear you, I hear you. I’m not trying to lay any trap. I’m just wondering, you know, she endorsed you, and Todd Palin was clearly upset that you wouldn’t say whether she was qualified, and I wanted to give you the chance to, you know, say “yes” or “no”, and it sounds like you’re not really going to say “yes” or “no.”

MILLER: No, let me make this unequivocal. She’s done phenomenal things for this country, there’s no question about that. She’s elevated the debate critical to our race, and let me tell you also: we know what qualified means, don’t we?

We know that we have a constitutional requirement for somebody that’s gonna run for President. Of course, she’s qualified.