George W. Bush: "Madam Vice President!"

Apparently, the anonymous knuckleheads are at it again.

The 43rd President has told friends the ex-Alaska governor isn't qualified to be President and criticizes Arizona Sen. John McCain for putting Palin on the 2008 GOP ticket and handing her a national platform.

“He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this does not sound at all like something President Bush would say. He's yet to level criticism at the current occupant of the White House, despite Obama's success in "fundamentally transforming America" into something that would have been unthinkable a few short years ago.

A little more than a year ago, a former Bush speech writer made similar assertions about President Bush's feelings regarding Palin.

"Latimer writes in a new book - scheduled for release in October - that Bush wasn't even aware of Palin when she was picked.

"'What is she, the governor of Guam?'" Bush reportedly asked. Latimer also writes that Bush told aides that the then-Alaska governor was "not even remotely prepared" for the national stage."

Jason Recher, a former Bush aide who travelled with the President daily for nearly 3 years, was quick to discredit Latimer's nonsensical claims. Some may recognize the name. Recher was a top Palin aide during the 2008 Presidential campaign, and has worked with her extensively over the past two years.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A former aide to George W. Bush and Sarah Palin is dismissing a claim by onetime Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer that the former president was clueless about Palin when she was tapped as John McCain's running mate last August.

[...]

But Jason Recher, who served as special assistant to President Bush and as a traveling aide to Palin during the campaign, said the former President was well aware of Palin - especially since the two met in person in Alaska just three weeks before Palin was added to the Republican ticket.

During a stopover in Fairbanks on the way to the Beijing Olympics last August, Recher said Bush met with Palin and even made a knowing reference to her rising reputation in the Republican Party.

"The president was fully aware of who Sarah Palin was," Recher told CNN. "Even so much that when he greeted the governor and Todd in Fairbanks during a re-fueling stop on the way to the Beijing Olympics, he threw open his arms and said "Madam Vice President!'"

"He was very aware of her rising-star status and who she was and everything about her, even down to the fact that she recently had given birth to Trig," Recher said.

After Palin became the vice presidential nominee, Recher said the White House loaned out both he and Laura Bush's photographer Shealah Craighead to the McCain campaign to help staff Palin and her family.

Recher said Bush and Palin had a warm relationship and talked multiple times throughout the campaign, including after a large campaign rally near Orlando in September and after the Vice Presidential debate in October.

[...]

I suspect that Bush will be asked about Palin repeatedly over the next few weeks during his book tour. It's likely that another myth perpetuated by an anonymous source is about to be discredited.