John McCain says Gov. Sarah Palin is not to blame for his presidential loss.

“I’m so proud of her, and I’m very grateful she agreed to run with me. She inspired people. She still does,” McCain told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show Tuesday. “I couldn’t be happier with Sarah Palin.”

He went on to say that Palin will “play a prominent role” in future politics. (He also joked that losing the election to Barack Obama isn’t keeping him up: “I’ve been sleeping like a baby. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry.”)

When Leno asked him about unnamed “top advisors” who claimed that Palin caused tension in the McCain Camp, he said, “These things happen in campaigns.

“I think I have at least a thousand, quote, top advisers,” the Arizona senator scoffed.

Asked if Palin had drifted off message during the campaign, he responded, “Did you expect mavericks to stay on message?”

McCain’s remarks are a stark contrast to a recent Fox News report claiming that several McCain staffers were concerned that Palin “lacked the degree of knowledgeability necessary” to be a vice president.

Sources in McCain’s camp told Fox News after the election that Palin didn’t know what countries were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, or that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself.

Palin has fired back at those anonymous sources, calling them “jerks.”