gravitas (n): seriousness, solemnity, or importance
Does Sarah Palin possess these qualities? Former George W. Bush puppet master and current GOP commentator Karl Rove certainly doesn't believe so.
The former vice presidential candidate's new reality TV show, Sarah Palin's Alaska, isn't helping her gravitas factor, Rove told the UK's Daily Telegraph.
Karl Rove isn't moved by Sarah Palin's gravitas ... or anything.
"With all due candor, appearing on your own reality show on the Discovery Channel, I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of 'that helps me see you in the Oval Office,'" the former Deputy White House Chief of Staff said.
"Being the V.P. nominee on the ticket is different from saying 'I want to be the person at the top of the ticket,'" Rove adds. "There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas."
"They want to look at the candidate and say 'that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world.'"
This was the second time in a week that Rove, a poster boy for the GOP establishment if ever there were one, has appeared reluctant to provide any degree of enthusiastic support to Palin, who may or may not run in 2012.
On CBS' Face the Nation this weekend, Rove said Palin would be a "formidable candidate" if she ran in 2012, a decision he wasn't ready to weigh in on.
He also appeared unswayed, noting that candidates would be vetted to determine the "strength they will need to work on magnifying and weaknesses that they need to endeavor to overcome, or challenges that they need to overcome."
Questions about Palin's qualifications have been par for the course for Republican candidates and politicians alike of late, as well as various media types.
Alaska's Joe Miller and Delaware's Christine O'Donnell, Senate candidates backed by Palin who shocked the establishment with primary victories, were both unwilling to definitively answer questions about her presidential fitness.
Carl Paladino, the Tea Party-backed candidate running for New York Governor, gave a more concrete response regarding the Palin 2012 buzz:
"We need a real leader," Paladino said. "Not someone who just wants to go and throw a bunch of words around and proverbs and - I want somebody that is going to be totally responsible. Someone that is a student of that government."
Should Sarah Palin run for President?