Eagleburger Backpedals Over Palin Remark [View All]

[spindrifter]

By Kate Phillips
October 31, 2008, 6:37 pm

Within less than a day of saying that Gov. Sarah Palin wasn’t prepared to be president, former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger backtracked today on Fox News on his comments critical of Gov. Sarah Palin’s readiness to be president, saying he had his foot in his mouth and had made a mistake. Sort of.

In an interview with Stuart Varney on Fox’s “Your World” program today, Mr. Eagleburger said of his comments on NPR on Thursday: “You know, you are witnessing something quite unique, a man who is about to talk to you while he has his foot in his mouth.”

"I made a serious mistake yesterday. I was quoted correctly. I wasn’t thinking when I said it. In fact, I was discussing it — foreign policy, and this was in that context. And I was just plain stupid. And if I have given the flimflam artist, Barack Obama, some success with this, I am deeply apologetic. I did not intend it."

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But Mr. Eagleburger, who served under the first President Bush, went on to say: “I am sorry. I made a terrible mistake. And, when you look at the Palin thing in — in context, and — though, I have to say, I don’t think she would be, from the minute she became vice president, she would be an expert in foreign affairs. That’s clearly not the case.

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/eagleburger-back-pedals-and-apologizes-over-palin-remark/