Pete Wilson tears into Obama at state GOP convention

Former Gov. Pete Wilson lashed into Sen. Barack Obama today as a man who is unequipped to occupy the White House, even as he defended Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's qualifications for the vice presidency.

In a speech to the state GOP convention in Anaheim that was laced with reminisces of his decades of political battle, Wilson said that Sen. John McCain was the sole candidate who could go toe-to-toe with foreign leaders like Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Obama, he said, "is not someone who is ready to deal with someone like Putin."

Wilson, who served eight years in the U.S. Senate before winning the governorship, accused Democrats, and by extension Obama, of underhanded campaign tactics.

"Once again we have in this candidate a spender, someone who has adhered to a time-honored Democratic philosophy -- too often a philosophy that translates into, I think, the most divisive and cynical class warfare," said Wilson, who came under the same criticism himself after leading battles against illegal immigration and affirmative action.

Wilson took pains to praise Palin, whose leap onto the GOP ticket has energized the Republican base, although it has yet to translate into sustained upward movement for the ticket itself.

"This is a woman of some considerable spunk," Wilson told several hundred Republican delegates gathered for three days of strategizing for November's general election. "She's got guts. And she's also got intelligence."

Asked later how he squared his criticism of Obama, a four-year senator, with his praise of Palin, who has been governor for less than two years, Wilson cited her executive experience.

"If I were the Obama campaign management, I wouldn't hit that," he said. "That's just inviting attack on his greatest weakness."

Wilson's praise of Palin generated some of the most enthusiastic response to his speech, and those attending the convention cited her as their main reason for optimism. In part, that is because McCain has always had a touchy relationship with the party base because of his more moderate stance on illegal immigration. Palin, in contrast, has been embraced by the same conservatives skeptical of McCain.

At the convention, T-shirts bearing Palin's likeness were selling quickly -- including one with her face imposed over the classic, arm-cocked image of Rosie the Riveter. Several delegates bought -- sight unseen -- the $368 frame-less glasses popularized by Palin.

Shellie Whalen, a Yorba Linda mother and volunteer turned entrepreneur with her own "Palin Power" shirts, said that she hadn't felt an affinity for McCain until his selection of the Alaska governor as his running mate. In Palin, she said, she saw herself.

"She embraces her femininity, her motherhood," she said. "But she's got teeth. Just like the rest of us."

cathleen.decker@latimes.com