Recently, former McCain staffers have been leaking embarrassing information about Gov. Sarah Palin’s cluelessness on foreign policy and her unprofessional behavior. Top aide Steve Schmidt wouldn’t say whether she was a good VP choice. Yesterday, CNN’s Campbell Brown excoriated these aides, noting that they were the ones who vetted Palin and trumpeted her candidacy:
BROWN: To those McCain aides who say she is the reason they lost this election… can I please remind you of one thing: you picked her. You are the ones who supposedly vetted her, and then told the American people she was qualified for the job. You are the ones who after meeting her a couple of times, told us she was ready to be just one heartbeat away from the Presidency. … If Sarah Palin is the reason some voters chose Barack Obama, that is no one’s fault but your own.
Watch it:
“John McCain, as he so graciously said himself the other night, lost this election. He lost it with your help, your advice, your guidance, and yes, your running mate recommendations,” she added. “And that is crystal clear to everyone, no matter how hard you try to blame Sarah Palin or anyone else.” (HT: Atrios)
The Republicans, at least those still remaining with the party, are determined to not learn the right lessons from the past two elections.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:23 amSAVE THOSE WORDS……I WANT TO USE THEM WHEN HER LOYAL BUSHBOT HUSBAND IS LEAD AWAY IN CHAINS FOR HIS PARTICIPATION IN THE EMBEZZLEMENT OF THE IRAQI TREASURY.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:25 amOh, SNAP!!
Seriously, Ms. Brown is laying some great groundwork for a bid at an anchor seat in under 10 years. I’d watch her over Ms. Couric any day.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:25 amVerbalKint Says:
The Republicans, at least those still remaining with the party…
____________
What happened to the others… did they simply take off their armbands and lapel pins and try to blend into the crowd?
November 7th, 2008 at 10:26 amCampbell Brown rips McCain aides for blaming Palin for McCain loss: ‘You picked her.’»
– - And Palin pulled a Cleavon Little and put the gun to her own head.
What we had here, was a failure to communicate.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:27 amRepublicans: a scorpion caught in a ring of fire, stinging itself to death.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:28 amBROWN: To those McCain aides who say she is the reason they lost this election… can I please remind you of one thing: you picked her. You are the ones who supposedly vetted her, and then told the American people she was qualified for the job. You are the ones who after meeting her a couple of times, told us she was ready to be just one heartbeat away from the Presidency. … If Sarah Palin is the reason some voters chose Barack Obama, that is no one’s fault but your own.
Umm , wrong
Bible Spice is just as liable , as is someone like that jerkoff Joe the(Non)Plumber , for the overall fall-out/collapse surrounding them.
Why didn’t Caribou Barbie ever show a bit of humility or real intelligence by admitting what she did not know ?
Especially when one realizes there’s a helluva’ lot she doesn’t understand ……………..
November 7th, 2008 at 10:29 amOr, I guess, an elephant caught in a ring of mice, trampling itself to death.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:30 ami’m sure, between TP and MediaMatters et al, that a close watch will be kept on this new campbell brown show…
i really do hope she does a good job with it.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:33 amI thought delusions of grandeur was a prerequisite for GOPers running for high office. Palin was a perfect fit. As she said yesterday, it was inconceivable that she couldn’t answer any question posed to her.
McCain should have used the head located above his shoulders to pick a Veep. And Palin should have blinked.
So glad neither did. But I’m sure loving the after game show!
PEACE
November 7th, 2008 at 10:39 amI believe McCain was told by the religious right that he had to select Palin or they would walk. He simply wasn’t conservative enough and the party attempted to keep the right in their camp. Unfortunately, Palin actually thought she was selected because she had potential to be president based on her “skills” while the repubs wanted her to smile and wave.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:40 amCampbell Brown is right on.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:42 amCheck out this funny McCain Palin Parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv9bvrN1QMU
Campbell is right, of course. Sarah Palin did the ticket no favors. Her sizzle caused excitement, but the sizzle died, leaving no substance. However, the buck stops at the top. It’s the captain of the ship who is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on it. As a Navy man, McCain should know this.
McCain at least publicly acknowledged this in his concession speech (privately, he may be telling his aides other things). Even though the failures and flaws in his campaign were often generated through decisions of others, he at least gave lip service to the notion that they had his oversight (or if they didn’t, they should have).
November 7th, 2008 at 10:43 amIt’s truly pathetic that Bible Spice’s ambition and arrogance were a big part of the entire disaster.
If she were truly intelligent and comprehending of anything , she would have realized she was so far out of her league , and admitted as much ; and perhaps she could have dropped out gracefully.
Instead , blinded by delusions of grandeur , she kept quiet and proceeded to (hopefully) destroy her political future………..
November 7th, 2008 at 10:52 amYep the blame falls on McCain. Hes ultimately responsible and he made some awful decisions, the worst picking Sarah Palin.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:54 amPlenty of blame to go around here. Palin was selected to attract far-right Christian conservatives (like herself), attract votes from disaffected Hillary supporters (since she’s a woman also), and to attract working-class white males because of her looks by the McCain campaign strategists. Palin, being the ambitious person that she is, didn’t “blink” when offered the nomination. John McCain allowed himself to be persuaded to choose her, though she was NOT his choice. McCain also allowed himself to be persuaded to do a number of other dumb things as well, like “suspending” his campaign and running back to D.C. to “solve” the economic crisis to demonstrate his “leadership skills.” The upshot of that little adventure, of course, simply resulted in his looking like a chicken running around with its head cut off. (Having seen such in real life, I’ll tell you it’s probably one of the creepiest things you’d ever want to see!)
November 7th, 2008 at 10:55 amHas it ever occurred to the Republicans that McCain did not LOSE the election, that Obama WON?
November 7th, 2008 at 10:59 amThat the people CHOSE who they thought would be better for this country?
sometimes i wonder if those aides didn’t sabotage that campaign,
knowing that mcGRAMPY couldn’t actually win… so many dumb moves…
one thing i am grateful for, about palin, in hindsight – she brought out to the light just how much racism and bigotry still exists in the country…
it caught me by surprise, i admit… so glad most of us showed that we can overcome such ugliness…
lots of work to do… i have great hopes that Barack Obama will help to cure that systemic disease…
the middle school here held an election… mcOLDWHITEGUY won, 394-146… and from the quotes, it seems most of those kids get their ideas from their parents… as they should…
too bad so many parents are idjits.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:08 amI enjoy the doublespeak going on here. She’s the “reason they lost” and “the great hope” of the republican party. They should change their logo to an animal gnawing its own leg off to escape a trap.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:10 amOh, CheeseFlap, no haiku for us today? I love your haiku!
PEACE
November 7th, 2008 at 11:18 amThey should change their logo to an animal gnawing its own leg off to escape a trap.
Or at least a dog chasing it’s own tail.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:19 amTrue. True. I couldn’t have said it better myself. There is no escaping culpability on this one.
But guys, by no means stop dishing on this twit. The stories have to be fantastic.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:20 amThey should change their logo to an animal gnawing its own leg off to escape a trap.
A trap with a “Haliburton” logo no doubt.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:21 amHas or more appropriately had anyone not thought that she, as governor could stump for the candidate. Her presence on the ticket never really proved John McCain’s commitment to the base. In fact, the way things were boiling down, you could see her being hushed off to someplace quiet with no influence in government.
Her as a surrogate would have been just as helpful and hurt a whole hell of a lot less.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:26 amShe could have served as an excellent surrogate and would have done as much good and far less bad for the campaign. But McCain brags of his impulsiveness and claims to live with the consequences, so it this isn’t really much about him anymore.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:29 amThank God they haven’t appeared to have learned anything from their debacle
(CNN) — A conservative leader Friday laid the Republican Party’s poor showing at the polls at the feet of moderates who, he argues, led the party away from its core principles.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says the GOP must return to conservative principles.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council told CNN that conservatives need to take back control of the GOP if the party is to return to its winning ways.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:30 amThe Republicans chose a fictional, narrative campaign. That means there are kajillions of characteristics, incidents, and behaviors that fall short of the “story”.
Both McCain and Palin fit the bill. The blame game disgraces all.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:32 amWho’s behind the closed door meeting doing a post mortem on the McCain-Palin campaign? Is it the same people who picked Sarah Palin? The ones who issued clarifying statements as to John’s actual position when he erred?
McCain wasn’t moderate. He caved to Tony Perkins and company. Palin supposedly energized the RR base.
What Republicans lost were moderates and independents, voters not likely to be drawn to Perkin’s RR agenda.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:38 amThere seems to be a disconnect here. The Republican sham-meisters were trying to foist on the American public someone they KNEW WAS UNQUALIFIED for the job. This wasn’t about Country First. This was about marketing, pure and simple. The truth of the matter is, when you have NOTHING to offer, you offer up a NOBODY and dress it up in fancy clothes and keep the most egregious examples of incompetence from the people whose job is to report this sort of thing. Why would ANYONE, regardless of ideology, want to do this? It comes down to WINNING, nothing more than simply winning at all costs, even what could have cost the country everything we hold dear about our Republic. My answer to that is, how dare they? How dare they even THINK this was an acceptable thing to do? Well…I guess when you’re bankrupt of any ideas for positive change, you’ll grasp at anything that will help keep you in power. Thank the Sky-Wizard we were spared this totally inept attempt to pull the wool over our eyes once again. I feel the forces of darkness retreating, and Sarah Palin needs to be kept front and center of this type of thinking so that it will never happen again.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:46 am.
And a couple more bubbles float to the surface from the wreck formally known as the USS McTitanic.
.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:52 amwelcomekonchster</strong (I haven’t seen that moniker here before.)
“Thank God they haven’t appeared to have learned anything from their debacle”
Indeed! Palin was the perfect FRC/religious fanatic candidate and he’s completely ignoring how Palin’s ratings tanked even amongst devout Republicans.
Perkins (and all that he represents) may be trying to stay relevant, and may be he sees the current splintering and the confusion of the GOP as a opportunity to really turn it even more into God’s Own Party, thus making him and the relgious right even more important than before.
The dilemma being faced is that either the Right now has to move to the center to stay relevant and competitive, or move even further to the Right to become more distinctive and thus ‘more’ competitive. the former would be a compromise, the latter,’no compromise’. As ‘no compromise’ has achieved some ’successes’ but also failures and being absolutists the Religious Right is inherently tempted to become even more extreme. Having had so much control over the GOP they don;t want to let it go, but having lost the election they need to reshape the GOP even more in their own image. They have to re-affirm and strengthen their values without concession more than ever. And if they can’t fight the new trend, well at least Perkins and his ilk can become even bigger fish in a smaller pond by promoting victimhood and by leveraging their minority status–secure in the knowledge that by whining and yelling their devout congregations will pay even more to keep them in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed—if not politically, nationally relevant then at least still significantly supported.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:11 pmCampbell Brown is right on this one — it was McCain and his people who neglected to vet her, held her up as perfectly qualified, and thought the public was stupid enough to embrace her.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:25 pmMcCain has no one else to scapegoat for his loss — he did it — his campaign staff did it.
If Palin were honest, however, she would have declined the offer for VP, in recognition of her own lack of qualification.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:25 pmCampbell Brown has long been a White House stenographer.
Her new ‘Cutting through the Bull’ segment is encouraging.
It remains to be seen how she will apply this with the new administration. Her new apparently apolitical and independent coherence may just be a result of this transition period.
I hope she keeps it up, but CNN has chosen to hire a few more right wingers so once Obama is in power she may either be reigned-in or revert to a conservative bias once the new political fault lines are reestablished after January 20.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pmMarie Says:
If Palin were honest, however, she would have declined the offer for VP
I hate do defend Palin, but she might actually have thought she was qualified.
I agree with Brown -the burden is/was on McCain and his advisors. They were supposed to know better. Palin is who she is.
My suspicion is that they chose her because they though she could “energise” the base and get the Republican vote out, not because she was qualified. They were bent on running a campaign that preferred style over substance. Nothing more.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:13 pmThat, to me, is actually the scariest thing about her.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:35 pmSarah Palin is just as qualified as Barack (Barry) Obama. Palin is the scapegoat for all of the inept people in John McCain’s camp. If they would have let Sarah be Sarah, instead of trying to turn her into someone else, she would have continued to invigorate the Republican party. As it was, they tried to “manage” her and she doesn’t do that well. Then they started complaining that she went “rogue”, but that is when she started to be the great candidate for V.P.
If Obama and Biden had been grilled the way that Palin and McCain were, I believe that you would be seeing a totally different outcome. The true Republicans were NEVER disappointed in Sarah Palin. The one’s kissing up to Obama were the one’s doing the anti-Palin narratives. And it’s also funny that most of these turn-coats ended up on CNN.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pmssmith1018 Says:
Sarah Palin is just as qualified as Barack (Barry) Obama
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You are out of your mind you ignorant wingnut troll. BARAK is a constitutional scholar and Dimwit Caribou Bimbo wouldnt pass my 8th grade civics class. YOU are a moron so I GET that you wouldl like one of your ilk as VP. Those of us with an actual FUNCTIONING cerebral cortex will take a pass on more of the GOP marching moron parade.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:31 pmEugeneDebs Says:
You are out of your mind you ignorant wingnut troll.
Why the name calling? We happen to disagree, why attack? Oh, I remember now, that’s all the Obama fans can do. You can’t defend him with his accomplishments, so you have to attack and demean the person that disagrees with him. Time will tell who’s right.
P.S. I hope you get out of the 8th grade in the next couple of years. Maybe by the time you are old enough to vote, you will be able to hear both sides before making a decision.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:09 pmOh, SNAP!
November 7th, 2008 at 5:18 pm