McCain aides privately call Palin a ‘total disaster.’»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/16/mccain-palin-disaster/

McCain aides privately call Palin a ‘total disaster.’»

On Salon Radio this morning, Glenn Greenwald asked Harper’s Scott Horton about his recent reporting on how Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol lobbied the McCain campaign to select Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as the Republican vice presidential nominee. Horton explained that the McCain campaign is now regretting following Kristol’s advice, calling the Palin pick a “total disaster“:

HORTON: We’ve got a lot of finger-pointing going on within the camp, and I’d say there’s a pretty broad agreement amongst a number of the senior-most advisors to McCain that the Palin pick is worse than disappointing. It’s a total disaster, as one describes to me. And there is a sort of blame game going on there. <…>

I would say the anger and irritation between a number of the senior people in the McCain camp and Bill Kristol is become really acute. … They view this man as the guy who gave them this albatross, Sarah Palin. I think there’s a lot of real anger about it. There’s also recognition that it’s too late to do anything.

Horton said neoconservatives are “now just proceeding to develop Palin as their candidate, as somebody they want to bring up in 2012, as the neo-con favored Republican.” Last month, a former Republican White House official, who now works at the American Enterprise Institute, said, “She’s bright and she’s a blank page. She’s going places and it’s worth going there with her.”

[boobooday]

1. She's a blank page . . .

That explains the blank expression.

I am filled with warm affection for my fellow citizens when I realize that they are too smart to fall for this crap again.

[dmr]

27. A blank page: someone who they think is electable, to be the front-person while they rule behind

the scenes against the American people once again. I've had enough of Palin, and I believe most Americans have too. Yet, the neo-cons can be creative. They can work out a deal with their perhaps private black-ops - which will make Americans fearful again (ie 911) and push how Obama has not protected us ... blah, blah, blah ... to make Palin, or someone like her more palpable.

I hate sounding conspiratorial, but these past 8 years have taught me to think this way only for self-preservation.

Obama's presidency will have a short honeymoon if impatient Americans don't understand that we all will have to sacrifice one thing or another to make our country better for the long-term. The Republicans and Neo-cons will capitalize on it.

I have this feeling that Palin is already looking at a Congressional run. She's already out there making connections and networking. My fingers are crossed that Alaskan citizens or the FBI will null and void her political career.

Palin's mouth is too dangerous to Americans. She seems to literally enjoy being nasty and evil. The thing is, how would the Neo-cons promote patriotism (which is really Nationalism for them) when she has the anti-American AIP hanging over her head? I'm not so sure they could get past that. I want her out of politics for good. She can just go back and enjoy her house that political opportunism and greed built, that is if the FBI doesn't take it all away from her and Todd.

[glitch]

34. Yep. it's all they need, all they've ever really wanted.

Unfortunately sociopaths are never truly blank, George had baggage, Sarah's got baggage.
Too bad that is their only pool to chose from, anyone else would blink at the opportunity to be their latest, new and improved, prize puppet.

Sucks ass to be them.

[CADEMOCRAT7]

28. She is quickly becoming a page filled with Ethics Violations.

She is no longer a blank page.

[Karenina]

32. AND fiery, radical religious and political connexions!

:woohoo: Such chutzpah that SHE take on the role as standard bearer for the "domestic terrorist" theme.

[boobooday]

41. True. True!

It's become pulp fiction on a small town scale.

[Overseas]

35. Stepford Candidate. Sitcom Sarah. Reality TV star.

Ready to Serve to Hasten the Rapture.

[BootinUp]

2. I'm for pre-emption, destroy her now. lol. nt

[madmax]

8. I'm with you on that

If she isn't neutralized now she'll be rearing her head in 2012 for sure. And I don't think I can stand another campaign season of her and her shit.

[tblue37]

17. If she rears her head over the Alaskan air space, she can look

Putin in the eye and read his soul, the way W did, since Putin's head is already reared over the Alaskan airspace:

[Raster]

33. Destroying her now is NOT a laughing matter. This is who the neoCONjobs are going to

groom for running in 2012. They will play the historic "first woman president" card.

And let's face it, the current cheney*/bush* mis-administration has fucked things up so badly that ANYONE that follows them--and please Lord, let it be Obama and Biden--is going to have disaster on their hands. The rethuglicans will play off of this.

And failin' Palin could be the neoCONjobs last, greatest hope for impregnating our government with their failed ideology.

Seriously, this woman is a threat as long as she has ANY TYPE OF POLITICAL LIFE.

[BootinUp]

38. You are correct, I guess I am getting cocky. nt

[Raster]

39. Maybe, but you've got a damned good idea. This Alaska hillbilly trash needs to be sent back

to where she came from. I have a feeling the good people of the great State of Alaska might have a few bones to pick with Palin.

Take my word for it: destroy her political career now, or live to regret it in 2012.

[madmax]

43. I have felt that from day one.

This woman is dangerous and not to be taken lightly.

[Raster]

44. I'm telling you: we underestimate her at our peril. The rethuglican high command

expects to lose this election. 2008 is a give-away. 2012 is now the prize and Miss Thing from Alaska is the Holy Grail. I guarantee Palin is going to be schooled, think-tanked, conditioned, groomed and readied. She is their great white female hope.

[orestes]

3. I really, really hope someone within that campaign

writes a tell all book after this is over.

[Window]

19. That would be a blast! "How Not to Run a Campaign." LOL!

[hobbit709]

4. Kristol is batting 1.000

Everything he's been in favor of has turned into a major disaster At least he's consistent.

[spooky3]

29. No kidding. Mediamatters.org and other sites have him nailed.

I hope his wife/partner makes all of their major household decisions.

[On the Road]

5. Bill Kristol is Responsible for Palin?

Hahahahaha. That man is such a tool.

[nichomachus]

6. Yeah -- because McInsane has been so f'ing brilliant n/t

[BOSSHOG]

7. Imagine Bill Krystol giving bad advice

He thought going to war in Iraq would be a cheap piece of cake.

"She's a blank page." Just like those who listen to limbaugh. So the AEI wants to write on her tabula rasa?? That has worked out so well for our country in the past.

Hey if she keeps mccain out of the white house she won't be much of a disaster after all. Way to go bill.

[yellowcanine]

18. Question is when has Billy Bob given good advice? He was a cake-walker, remember?

He also was a big proponent of Dan "headlights" Quayle.

[Jim Lane]

45. A good point re Quayle -- Palin would be likely to follow in his footsteps

The right-wing base loved Dan Quayle. The rest of the country thought he was pretty stupid, or at least not Presidential timber.

Quayle thought that the adoration of the base would pave his path to the presidency. It didn't happen. How many people today even remember that he ran?

Palin in 2012? I'd love to see her as the nominee, but, alas, I don't think she has a hope. I'd bet on Mitt.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Why the hell would the McCain campaign follow advice

from that washed up old neocon anyway? This is a real reflection on his lack of judgement.

[demokatgurrl]

10. Well I agree with the "blank page" part.

Hopefully she gets run out of the Gov's mansion and we never see her again unless we watch Faux.

[DJ13]

11. I would have thought Kristol was a known idiot after his Iraq war push

That McCain would follow his advice (again) tells me how unprepared he really is to be a leader.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. The fucking knuckle-dragging, flat Earth, Creationist base LOVES her.

That's all that matters. What the crazy God Goobers think.

[book_worm]

13. bottom line is that Palin isn't Kristol's fault--she's John McCain's selection

it was his decision, the first major one as a nominee, and unlike Barack Obama, McCain blew it. He never really met or even talked to her except, apparently, one brief conversation. He certainly didn't have her vetted. No, if there's blame it's McCain's.

[texanshatingbush]

14. She's a blank page alright.........

I hope with all my heart that sensible Republicans regain control of their party from the rePublicans who have owned it for too long now.

[Supersedeas]

42. a blank page -- sounds like female version of Bushler

[NewJeffCT]

46. I hope the party has an internal civil war and splits in 2 or 3 parts

leaving Democrats in control for at least a generation...

[yellowcanine]

15. “She’s bright and she’s a blank page. She’s going places and it’s worth going there with her.”

Do they think they can get away with another Chimpster?

[leftist.]

16. lol PLEASE run her in 2012.

Getting another four years for Barack without having to work too hard to get it would be a welcome change :)

[tblue37]

20. And on top of that, after encouraging McCain to go very negative and to unleash Palin,

when those tactics backfired, Kristol said the McCain campaign had turned into a disaster and he should fire the wholecampaign.

They follow Kristol's advice, the campaign tanks, and Kristol then blames them for the disaster. Sounds like the way the Republcians followed their ideology to the point where the US is staring into the abyss, and now they blame the Democrats for not somehow managing to stop them, even though the Republicans had full control over all three branches of the government. Or the way the Republicans blame poor home owners for not being able to figure out the bill of goods they were being sold by predatory lenders.

I think I see a pattern here.

It's the same pattern that abusers follow when they blame their victims for causing them to lose control and hurt them.

[Skidmore]

21. Man....we need to hammer the neocons now.

If we can get them off their game for a long enough period of time, we stand a chance of ridding the world of their dangerous ideology.

[Cha]

22. kristol is regretting kristol's advice and mccain's camp is

claiming kristol is using the Obama party line! palin's caused a lOT of problems..good. She needs to be brought down now.

I was reading a body language person's take on the debate last night and she said mccain registered "lie" when he was praising palin. That's not scientific.. only interesting.

palin is not blank..she has her own sorrid history and maybe they'd like to go back to the frozen tundra with her.

"mccain-palin is the only national ticket where "both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election."


"A HISTORIC TICKET.... Now that Sarah Palin has been found to have abused her powers, violated state ethics, and lied about it, I did a little digging and found an interesting historical footnote.

The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.

McCain, of course, was admonished by Senate Ethics Committee "for exercising 'poor judgment' for intervening" with federal regulators on behalf of Charles Keating, as part of the infamous Keating Five scandal.

And now McCain's running mate has also been found to have violated state ethics laws and abused the powers of her office, as part of the "Troopergate" scandal.

"The nation has had 102 major-party tickets covering 51 presidential elections over more than two centuries. And we've never had a ticket in which both candidates on the same ticket were responsible for ethics violations before a national election. McCain/Palin is the first."

It makes the whole "reform" pitch a little more difficult, doesn't it?"

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/20 ...

[JeffR]

23. Kristol is a prize asscarrot, but he's not to blame for this.

First, only an idiot like McCain would take the advice of an idiot like Kristol.

Second, no matter how good the idea seemed, had the McCain team done a shred of due diligence in the vetting process, they'd have known better than to put her on the ticket.

Third, Palin is indeed a total disaster. But so's the guy at the top of the ticket, so she fits in just fine.

[BootinUp]

26. That takes some skill to use a creative adjective in front of

asscarrot, LOL.

Seriously if Palin had a little longer experience along with the repuke noise and fog machine they might have had something, that is how dumb this country can be.

[Blackhatjack]

24. I LOVE IT! PLease Bring Her Back in 2012 & 2016.... The Gift That Keeps On Giving...

The glare of the national spotlight has done wonders for her so far... although I am not sure she wants to go back to live with "her friends and neighbors" in Alaska who are plenty upset with her.

[yurbud]

25. a new empty vessel--now with fall guy potential since she isn't the spawn of the Brahmans

[renie408]

30. Here's the thing...Bill Kristol hasn't ever been right about ANYTHING...why

did they think he would be right about this??

McCain is responsible for Palin. Period.

[Blasphemer]

31. I wish the Neocons lucks witht that one... Palin doesn't have what it takes... nt

[Shine]

36. LOL! She's going back to Alaska. THAT'S where she's going.

:eyes:

[renie408]

37. Yeah, that whole "Palin 2012" thing is insane. She is campaign poison.

[Occam Bandage]

40. And slowly, conservatives learn one of the great truths of the universe:

Bill Kristol has never been right about anything. Ever.

[and-justice-for-all]

47. Sorry, but 2012 is already booked...

Obama will be a two term President.

[KayLaw]

48. She's bright and a blank page?

How can anyone believe that? She can't answer simple questions. She's never heard of an achilles heel. She has no idea what the Bush doctrine is. She's just a big old dumb bunny and, I think, a hopeless case. Forget it.

[Eurobabe]

49. Good luck with that in 2012, Sarin.

:puke: :puke:

[democracy1st]

50. K & R