'She's an instinctively effective candidate and with a compelling story,' Mr Clinton said in an interview with CNBC which aired on Thursday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON: Mrs Sarah Palin has come in for unusual praise from Democrat and former president Bill Clinton, but her lack of foreign policy experience has not impressed a top member of her own party.
US Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska became the most prominent Republican officeholder to question publicly whether Senator John McCain's vice-presidential choice has the experience to serve as commander-in-chief.
'I think it's a stretch, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States,' Mr Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald. 'She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything.'
Mr Hagel, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has cultivated a reputation as somebody unafraid to break with his party.
He supported Mr McCain's unsuccessful bid for president in 2000 but has said that, in this election, he has no plan to endorse either Mr McCain or Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
But Mr Clinton warned Democrats not to underestimate Mrs Palin.
'She's an instinctively effective candidate and with a compelling story,' Mr Clinton said in an interview with CNBC which aired on Thursday.
'I get why she's done so well. It's a mistake to underestimate her. She's got good intuitive skills. They're significant.'
