After Lobbying To Select Palin, Top McCain Adviser Can’t Bring Himself To Say She Was A Good Pick
After Lobbying To Select Palin, Top McCain Adviser Can’t Bring Himself To Say She Was A Good Pick
In his recent New York Times Magazine piece on the McCain campaign, Robert Draper reveled that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) pick of Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) “may have been even more impulsive than initially thought.”
Draper explained that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was strongly urging McCain to pick Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). At the “last minute,” however, McCain strategist Steve Schmidt and campaign manager Rick Davis convinced McCain to pick Palin:
The evening of Aug. 24, Schmidt and Davis, after leaving the Ritz-Carlton meeting, showed up at McCain’s condominium in Phoenix. They informed McCain that in their view, Palin would be the best pick. “You never know where his head is,” Davis told me three weeks later. “He doesn’t betray a lot. He’s a great poker player. But he picked up the phone.” Reached at the Alaska State Fair, Palin listened as McCain for the first time discussed the possibility of selecting her as his running mate.
Schmidt’s enthusiasm for Palin seems to have waned significantly in the last days of the election. Yesterday, reporters on the McCain campaign plane asked Schmidt if the campaign was “happy” with the Palin pick. Schmidt couldn’t bring himself to say “yes“:
Q: And the pick of Palin for you guys? Are you happy with that?
SCHMIDT: You know, we’ll uh, I’m not going to do, there’ll be time for all the postmortems in the race.
Q: But are you happy with what she’s done for the ticket?
SCHMIDT: I think that, you know, I think we’ll know in a few hours what the results are, you know and I, there’ll be a time for all the postmortem parts of it. That’s not this afternoon before the polls close.
Schmidt went so far last night as to “veto” Palin’s request to offer a few words to the crowd after McCain conceded the election. Politco’s Mike Allen reports on a forthcoming Newsweek article, “Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.”
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Doesn’t matter ……………LIEberman , the Israeli 1st’er , would have lost him millions of votes for other reasons ……………..
November 5th, 2008 at 10:16 amSchmidt went so far last night as to “veto” Palin’s request to offer a few words to the crowd after McCain conceded the election.
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And for that, we thank you, Steve.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:19 amSteve Schmidt and Rick Davis, America is in indebted for you service in torpedoing the campaign of John McCain. A McCain / Lieberman ticket would have been much more formidable.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:26 am“Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.”
My wife and I were dreading the notion of Palin stepping up to the microphone.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:30 amListen. We know the Palin selection was to woe the disappointed, and dare I say, disenfranchised Hillary supporters. It was a Hail Mary at best. One that drew initial excitement, which waned tremendously once the public realized how out of touch she was with the knowledge of federal government.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:30 amBad choice.
No touchdown.
No first down.
Quarterback sacked.
Fumble.
Loss.
End of game!
Steven’s wins Alaska, Senate boots him out, Palin self appoints,,Unfortunately we’ll have to listen to her for many years to come.
Oh well, nothings going to wipe the smile off my face for days!!!!
November 5th, 2008 at 10:31 ammisshusseinmolly Says:
Schmidt went so far last night as to “veto” Palin’s request to offer a few words to the crowd after McCain conceded the election.
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And for that, we thank you, Steve.
Indeed. McCain had enough trouble with the red meat wingers in the audience, and Palin would just have stirred them up again purely for naked ambition.
Ooog. Sorry about the “naked” part.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:31 amSen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was strongly urging McCain to pick Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). At the “last minute,” however, McCain strategist Steve Schmidt and campaign manager Rick Davis convinced McCain to pick Palin
MCM nailed it. McCain would have done no better with Lieberman. The wingnuts would have gone apeshit, and McCain would have never gotten the Palin Bubble after the convention, that’s all.
It’s too bad, as I was SO looking forward to Lieberman becoming the first VP candidate to lose for BOTH parties.
That would’ve been sweet. As it is, we’ll have to settle for watching Holy Joe stand in front of the Senate while Harry Reid rips the epaulets off his uniform and snaps his saber over bended knee, “Branded”-style.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:31 amShe was the worst.
If McCain had kept his temper in check, and had not been thinking with his “little head,” he might have had a chance.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:33 amHopefully Palin’s star has burnt out and we will not have to hear any more about her. Alaska, she is all yours. The saner folks of the lower 48 want nothing to do with her. Thank you.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:35 amSchmidt and Davis will need to make up new identities with fake resumes to find any future employment.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:36 amLungman424 Says:
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Steven’s wins Alaska, Senate boots him out, Palin self appoints,,Unfortunately we’ll have to listen to her for many years to come.
Oh well, nothings going to wipe the smile off my face for days!!!!
She can’t self appoint or appoint anyone. Alaska changed the rules and there has to be a special election held.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:38 amAs picks go that has to rank as one of the worst ideas ever then to keep her sequestered from the public. Like the American public was so stupid that it would put a “pig-in-a poke a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency even if it did have lipstick on
November 5th, 2008 at 10:40 amIt’s November 5th and this is just flotsam and jetsam now.
Moving on…
November 5th, 2008 at 10:40 amSchmidt can’t acknowledge Palin as a “mistake”–and not just because Republicans never admit mistakes.
To calk the Palin choice a mistake would be to call the vital evangelical base a mistake.
The nativist camp would be a “mistake”.
Without them there would be no GOP, and the demographic trends show that their base isn’t getting any bigger.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:42 amSarah, thanks for playing “Who Wants to be Moosilini” and as a parting gift, please feel free to keep your new wardrobe. B-bye.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:47 amwoulda, coulda, shoulda…
Alaska has become the refrigerator with the burnt out light bulb that someone finally replaced.
All the old, moldy and corrupt containers of leftovers are brought to the light of day, and will get tossed.
Ted Stevens, Don Young, VECO, Sarah Palin… who knows who else.
Thank you, Mr. Schmidt, for changing the light bulb.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:49 amFair to say this is going to be a messy divorce?
November 5th, 2008 at 10:50 amI still believe that the main reason Palin got picked is because McCain needed to find some way to push Obama off the front page on the day following his rousing DNC acceptance speech, to reduce his convention bounce as much as possible.
Picking somebody predictable, like Mitt Romney, wouldn’t cut it. The media would merely yawn collectively. No, McCain needed to spend this chip (the biggest in his pocket) on something that would leave America slack-jawed. Something that would dominate the next several news cycles. Something that would suck all the wind out of Obama’s sails.
He did it by picking Palin. It worked. The afterglow of Obama’s speech was cut short as the media all scrambled to the shiny object that was Palin. She became a media star overnight. Exactly as planned.
Only problem is that now McCain was stuck with her. He could no longer hammer Obama on his “lack of experience” without looking like a fool (not that it stopped him). He was put into the unenviable position of defending her as she became more and more of an embarrassment to the campaign.
Sarah and the First Dude will be winging their way back to Alaska soon. And I predict that McCain won’t be sorry to seen them go.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:54 amSarah Palin , did wonders for the GOP presidential ticket , now she gets a last shot at entering federal politics in her appointment to replace Ted Stevens .
November 5th, 2008 at 10:56 amI see her on the floor of the senate ….. speaking in tongues !
BTW over at RedState there’s a lot of talk about “introspection” and “self-examination”.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:03 amGood God, what have they become? :D
Let’s get some real interviews of the Moose Queen. Let’s hear her without her handlers and without scripted interviews. Let her show everyone what kind of people have been allowed in the republican party to the second highest level. Just to be very clear (there are still a lot of people who supported her to the end, and still don’t know who she really is).
November 5th, 2008 at 11:04 amCaption contest:
Steve Schmidt, Snake on a Plane
November 5th, 2008 at 11:08 amPalin still thinks its all about her. What was she going to say? Vote for me in 2012?
November 5th, 2008 at 11:09 ammisshusseinmolly…
I agree it was a need ‘publicity stunt’ for a campaign in the doldrums.
What they failed to take into her account was her blind ambition–because all they vetted her for was her sex and evangelical bona-fides.
She was supposed to be the ’supportive wife’.
Instead McCain for a while was the supporting ‘husband’.
And being so ambitious. so egotistical and so ignorant she thought her perky persona would get her into the White House.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:17 amNo need to consider anyone else but herself.
That’s why they had to reign her in, and then they couldn;t use her. She was the maverick.
After being fed a bush league diet of “all hat, no cattle” for 8 years, they thought the public would savor a tasty treat of “all lipstick, no caribou.” No sale.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:33 amRyan Powers:
In his recent New York Times Magazine piece on the McCain campaign, Robert Draper reveled that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) pick of Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) “may have been even more impulsive than initially thought.”
Is there a typo here? Should it be “Robert Draper reveled”, meaning he took great delight at the consequences of McCain’s impulsive pick, or should it be “Robert Draper revealed”, meaning he’s exposing to the world that McCain was too impulsive? When a typo can change the meaning, I like to ask. Thanks.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:43 amChuck Feney,
“All lipstick, no caribou.” I like that one. :)
November 5th, 2008 at 11:44 amMay Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis run every Republican presidential campaign. As long as the shrinking opposition continues to run on the Reagan/Bush smoke and mirrors but no substance philosophy their party will continue to shrink.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:46 amLooks like Schmidt violated her 1st Amendment rights.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:53 amIt was always , and will always be about Bible Spice to Bible Spice ; what kind of special-kind-of-stupid and delusional self-worth and warped view does it take to be a VP candidate on the LOSING TICKET , and ask to address the GOP crowd?
What did Joe Biden get to do last evening , besides walk out and wave and enjoy the moment with his family ?
What a crazy , delusional , self-centered and self-aggrandizing jerkoff she truly is…………..
November 5th, 2008 at 11:57 amdaaaaaaahaaaaaddaaaaddddaaaah! Just spit it out fool y’all made a very grave mistake!
November 5th, 2008 at 12:02 pm…has the GOP unleashed a home-grown virus that they now have to figure out how to get rid of ?
November 6th, 2008 at 1:51 am…what is the saying…(?), oh yes, you can’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case maybe the GOP did ?
..how long will the inner circle of GOP operatives bicker/discuss what went wrong, before they start planning for 2012 ? Should be some interesting reading coming out (books) from the McCain side and the Palin side.