Arizona Senator John McCain says that Sarah Palin was a “better candidate” than Mitt Romney in 2008, in what may be the least helpful defense of Romney’s tax return problem imaginable.

McCain made the comment in an interview with Politico on Tuesday. He was attempting to refute the claims of Democrats such as Rahm Emanuel, who mockingly said over the weekend that when Romney “gave them 23 years [of tax returns], John McCain’s campaign looked at it and went, ‘Let’s go with Sarah Palin.’ So whatever’s in there is far worse than just the first year.”

“That’s just outrageous,” McCain told Politico. “It’s so disgraceful for them to allege something that they have absolutely no knowledge of.”

When asked why he decided not to pick Romney, McCain replied

Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate. Why did we not take [Tim] Pawlenty, why did we not take any of the other 10 other people. Why didn’t I? Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others. … Come on, why? That’s a stupid question.

So, according to McCain, Romney was a worse candidate than the walking punch line who couldn’t name a single Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade, couldn’t name a single newspaper that she regularly reads, claimed that her foreign policy credentials were enhanced by being able to see Russia from her house, and — according to polls — significantly hurt McCain’s chances of winning the election.

After hearing McCain’s attempt to “help,” Romney may want to borrow a phrase from Paul Ryan: “with friends like these, who needs the left?”