Governor Palin may attend next week’s U.N. General Assembly, where she would be able to meet with many of the foreign heads of state gathering in New York on Tuesday, according to a source close to the McCain presidential campaign. The Wall Street Journal’s Web site quoted a campaign strategist as saying that next week’s gathering would give Mrs. Palin “some exposure and experience with foreign leaders,” adding: “It’s a great idea.” Several foreign diplomats, including representatives of Israel and France, told The New York Sun that as of yesterday they had not been contacted by Senator McCain’s campaign to arrange such meetings. Mrs. Palin is already scheduled to attend a Jewish-sponsored rally across from the United Nations building on Monday to protest against President Ahmadinejad. Senator Clinton is expected to be the top Democrat at the rally.

McCAIN AS BLACKBERRY CREATOR?

A top adviser to Senator McCain has done for the BlackBerry what Vice President Gore did for the Internet: made it the punchline of a political joke. Asked by reporters yesterday about Mr. McCain’s grasp of technological issues, senior policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin noted the Arizona senator’s tenure as a former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Then Mr. Holtz-Eakin held up his BlackBerry. “He did this,” he said. “Telecommunications in the United States, the premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create. And that’s what he did.” The comment was shorthanded by some to Mr. McCain’s “creating” the BlackBerry, and the mockery began. “John McCain laughed himself when he heard it,” spokesman Tucker Bounds said. “He would never lay claim to inventing the BlackBerry or anything else of that matter. It was a boneheaded joke from a staffer.”

ADVISER: McCAIN LACKS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE

An economic adviser to Senator McCain says neither Mr. McCain nor his running mate, Governor Palin, is qualified to lead a large corporation. Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO, was asked by KTRS radio in St. Louis yesterday whether she thought Mrs. Palin had the experience to run a big company. “No, I don’t,” Ms. Fiorina replied. “But that’s not what she’s running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things.” Later on MSNBC, said she said the same of the presidential nominee. “I don’t think John McCain could run a major corporation.” Ms. Fiorina said Senator Obama and his running mate, Senator Biden, also don’t have the business background for such a task.