Appearing on Tuesday's NBC Today, political director Chuck Todd warned Mitt Romney against picking Marco Rubio as a vice presidential running mate with a negative comparison to Sarah Palin: "The drawbacks – inexperience. Do you want to pick somebody who basically has the same amount of time in statewide office that a person who was on the ticket last time by the name of Sarah Palin had?"

Todd oddly asserted: "...he's never really been vetted. When you say vetted, his campaign for the Senate, he breezed through. He never had the rough and tumble." In what way did he "breeze through"? Rubio had a long and contentious primary battle with former Florida governor Charlie Crist, who then proceeded to run in the general election as an independent. Rubio had to defeat both Crist and the Democrat to win the seat.

As NewsBusters reported earlier, David Chaney, a now fired secret service agent involved in HookerGate, boasted on his Facebook page in 2008 as having ogled former Alaska governor Sarah Palin while guarding her.

On MSNBC's Martin Bashir Show Friday, the host scolded Chaney for "making Sarah Palin relevant" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry informed viewers that reviews were in for Sarah Palin's Tuesday guest-hosting stint on the broadcast: "...we had a pretty interesting morning around here on Tuesday, as you may remember, with Sarah Palin as our guest host. And there's been some reaction, in fact a lot of it, in fact, has been mixed."

Later, fellow co-host Matt Lauer highlighted Palin-bashing by Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who mocked: "It's Sarah Palin co-hosting the Today show! And she was there performing a medley of her greatest hits from, 'I don't read newspapers,' to 'I write on my hand.' To that old chestnut, 'I passive aggressively hate Matt Lauer with every ounce of my being.'" After the clip, Lauer joked: "Thank you, Mr. Stewart for the cross promotion there. We really appreciate it."

Stewart went on to further slam Palin's appearance: "It's just another place for you to tout your brand of homespun nonsense unchallenged!"

In his Tuesday interview with Sarah Palin on NBC's Today, co-host Matt Lauer insisted the economy was getting better and wondered why voters should bother voting out President Obama: "Some people would say if things seem to get better, or be getting better, why would I take that chance and change the person in the White House?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Lauer referenced a March 28 interview he conducted with House Speaker John Boehner: " Even the Speaker of the House, I sat down with him, John Boehner, last week, I said is the economy improving? He said yes, it is. And I said, so how do Republicans run against an improving economy? He said, you say, 'It should be better.'" Palin interjected: "It should be a lot better and it could be a lot better." Lauer countered: "But is that a bumper sticker that's going to inspire people?"     

On Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer pressed Sarah Palin on whether the Republican nominee should pick a vice presidential running mate with more experience than she had in 2008. Palin hit back: "I would say it doesn't matter if that person has national level experience or not, they're going to get clobbered by the lamestream media, who does not like the conservative message." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Lauer denigrated Palin's qualifications as he asked: "When you were plucked from obscurity in 2008 you'd been Alaska's governor about two years. You didn't have any real experience on the national stage....Do you think, if Mitt Romney's the nominee, he should choose someone with more experience on the national battlefield than you had at the time?"