"Raise your hand if you've never been insulted by John McCain' Johnson noted "And no one did."

[BigBearJohn]

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota called Sarah Palin "not ready" to be vice president, referencing her recent statements on Russia and Iraq and her "laughable" experience arguments.

One enters Johnson's private hideaway office in the U.S. Capitol to find the Democrat sitting next to a stack of newspapers. While his staff is undergoing a wholesale office move this week, the Senator is working here, only a couple paces from the footpath of tourists, who stream steadily through the hallway just outside the small office's door.

Up for reelection this year in a deep-red state, the Senator was eager to talk politics. Declaring himself unimpressed with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's first interview with Charles Gibson Thursday night, Johnson called her "not ready" to lead the country as vice president. "And this idea that she has national security experience because of the Alaska National Guard, it's just laughable," he added. On the topic of Russia, Johnson said he would have been comforted if her statements in support of a possible war with the nuclear power had been joined "with some discussion of diplomacy."

Nodding toward the pile of newsprint, Johnson said Palin "thinks Iraq had something to do with Sept. 11," a reference to a Friday Washington Post article in which the Alaska Republican is quoted telling soldiers headed for deployment that they would soon be "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/12/tim-johnson-palins-experi_n_126004.html