Who Runs Gov

The Plum LineGreg Sargent's blog

McCain Aides: Palin Might Never Be Ready For Presidency

This one could complicate Sarah Palin’s expected 2012 presidential run: It turns out that during Campaign 2008, McCain aides reportedly had concluded that Palin was not ready for the presidency — and, crucially, thought she might never be ready for it.

Check out this nugget buried in the much-discussed piece about Palin in Vanity Fair

As Palin has piled misstep on top of misstep, the senior members of McCain’s campaign team have undergone a painful odyssey of their own. In recent rounds of long conversations, most made it clear that they suffer a kind of survivor’s guilt: they can’t quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be.

If senior McCain aides really concluded that Palin might never be ready for the presidency, but worked to elect McCain-Palin anyway, that seems like vindication for those who argued that the Palin pick raised serious questions about McCain’s fitness for office and his commitment to doing what was right for the country.

Separately, this one could be wielded effectively by those hoping to frustrate Palin’s 2012 ambitions, Republicans and Dems alike. Indeed, Dems are already jumping on it. As DNC spokesperson Hari Sevugan just put it to me: “If McCain-Palin staffers don’t think she’ll ever be ready, who will?”

This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.

Posted by Greg Sargent | 06/30/2009, 11:33 AM EST | Categories: Republican Party, political media

13 Responses

  1. williamc | June 30th, 2009 at 11:50 am

    sbj, if you show up on this thread, can you and all of your Republican friends please please please draft Sarah into your Party’s Presidential Nomination Process in 2012? She is the perfect distillation of everything we love about Republicanism right now: self-righteous about protecting her family after exploiting them for all they were worth when it would give her some mileage; non-comprehension about the basic functions and duties of government and it’s officials; and so tapped into what “real Americans” want that after loosing a campaign that they are willing to play it all exactly the same except even more conservative.

    Palin/Bachmann ‘12! Those ladies are conservatism, I don’t see how it can be failed by them.

  2. sgwhiteinfla | June 30th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

    Greg

    Did you see Sen Kerry’s response to Sarah Palin’s “Why the long face” crack? Man its priceless!

  3. Greg Sargent | June 30th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    no, SG, missed it — got link?

  4. sgwhiteinfla | June 30th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Yep.

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2009/06/sen_kerry_clarifies_joke_about.html

  5. williamc | June 30th, 2009 at 12:29 pm

    sg, even funnier were the comments accompanying the piece…I hate nutpicking, but my favorite is by dwd-roch…

    “And his wife is such an a*s…her late husband has to be turning in his grave as he realizes his wife has taken his family fortune and supported the French Senator from MA, who, by the way says he served in Viet Nam. I served an entire year in VN like most of our soldiers… Kerry was able to “engineer” an out. I’d be embarrassed to have that scum as my senator… but then we are talking about Democrats, and we all know they have no real values or morals.”

    Ah, 2004…I love Swiftboat lies, it reminds me of why I hate Republicans…

  6. Dave | June 30th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    It’s worse than that. Read the quote again: the McCain aides believed she’d never be qualified for the VICE-presidency.

  7. jzap | June 30th, 2009 at 01:17 pm

    Palin Might Never Be Ready For Presidency

    Might???

  8. oddjob | June 30th, 2009 at 01:18 pm

    “Palin Might Never Be Ready For Presidency” In other news, water is wet.

  9. LeAnn | June 30th, 2009 at 01:31 pm

    And this is coming from a campaign who’s slogan was “Country First”

    This only confrims what everyone already knew

  10. williamc | June 30th, 2009 at 01:56 pm

    lol@oddjob…I think that might be the funniest thing I’ve heard all day

    I mentioned to my co-worker the Palin story, and he (a community organizer, natch) said, “I’d feel bad for her or make fun of her, but then she would think that I was committing sacrilege against Trig or molesting Bristol’s mouth”.

  11. Andrew | June 30th, 2009 at 02:25 pm

    This Vanity Fair writer is the same one whom Bill Clinton called a “scumbag” last year after a hit piece against Bubba.
    Todd Purdum is his name, and he is said to have propagated Whitewater lies for Kenneth Star.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/bill-clinton-purdhum-a-sl_b_104771.html

  12. Hank | June 30th, 2009 at 04:25 pm

    As the republican reporter asked President Obama the other day – WHAT TOOK U SO LONG

  13. robert Meredith | June 30th, 2009 at 05:23 pm

    Palin is an example of the kind of executive decisions McCain would have made as president. She was a hail Mary pass in a loosing forth quarter.

Leave a Reply


Please email us at profiles@whorunsgov.com to bring to our attention any content or conduct that you believe violates our Discussion and Submission Policy.