Carly Fiorina, a key surrogate for John McCain on economic issues, said on Tuesday that Sarah Palin does not have the experience needed to run a major company like the one that Fiorina formerly headed.

"Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?" asked the host.

"No, I don't," responded Fiorina. "But you know what? That's not what she's running for."

Appearing on the McGraw Milhaven Show on St. Louis KTRS Radio, Fiorina went on to stress that the Alaska Republican had more executive experience than anyone else on the ticket, specifically Barack Obama.

"I find it quite stunning actually that the Barack Obama campaign is questioning Sarah Palin's experience," she said. "She has more executive experience than he does and she is the vice presidential nominee and he is the presidential nominee."

But the admission that Palin wasn't prepared to run the very business that Fiorina once headed is a gaffe that could come back to haunt the McCain campaign. Certainly, when critics mainly argue that Palin lacks the gravitas to step in for McCain at a moment's notice, and when the economy is the major topic on the campaign trail, it is easy to see how Fiorina's comment could make its way into an Obama or DNC attack ad.