Meghan McCain: Sarah Palin Not As Qualified For President As Mitt Romney

Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), questioned Sarah Palin's presidential qualifications Monday, while handicapping the 2012 race for the White House during a speech at Kennesaw State University.

"I think there are more qualified candidates," McCain said, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. "I just don't agree with the moves she's made since the election. If I was advising her I would have told her to go away, stay silent, read up on everything, then really start campaigning hard. The reality shows, it's just not what I believe in for the White House."

McCain, a conservative author and columnist, has never been shy to weigh in with her analysis of her father's former running mate. Whether explaining the alleged mayhem that the former Alaska governor wrought on the campaign or taking swipes at her oldest daughter, Bristol, McCain has usually appeared cautiously respectful of Sarah Palin, a line that she walked again on Monday.

"I think my father could have had Jesus Christ himself as his running mate," she said, deflecting Palin from blame for the campaign's failure in 2008.

"She is captivating on every level, and she's a lot smarter than people ever give her credit for," McCain said. "I do not think she's stupid. I do not think she's crazy. There are these things that she is stereotyped to be."

Despite those personal traits, however, McCain told students that she considered Palin to be too conservative to be a viable candidate. She prefers former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney over the rest of the field of potential contenders, she explained.

"My personal favorite right now is Mitt Romney," she said. "I like that he's not so radical. I like that he has really, really played his cards right, almost perfectly since the last election."