Posted on 01/07/2010 9:06:44 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
An adviser to John McCain who was preparing Sarah Palin for the vice presidential debate became so worried at Palin's weak performance in mock debates that he placed a panicked phone call to Steve Schmidt, the McCain campaign manager.
"He told us the debate was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions...she was not focused...not engaged," Schmidt says in an interview.
Specifically, "Palin had a reflexive tendency to refer to Biden as "O'Biden," says Schmidt, a tick that he said had to be corrected before the internationally televised debate in October 2008. The fix: "It was multiple people -- and I wasn't one of them-- who all said at the same time, 'Just say, Can I call you Joe?' Which she did."
Schmidt says Palin "more than held her own" in the debate, and never called Joe Biden "O'Biden." He also says that Palin strengthened the ticket, which, in his view, would have performed worse without her. . Schmidt recounts the story to Anderson Cooper in an interview for this Sunday's "60 Minutes" on CBS, which includes political reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann discussing the 2008 presidential campaigns.
Heilemann and Halperin will also talk about their new book, "Game Change," which they wrote after interviewing more than 200 people involved the historic elections, including many directly involved in the McCain campaign.
The authors and Schmidt reveal other new campaign details, including that John McCain had decided to choose Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) as his running mate, but reversed course days before the Republican convention because of "blowback" from the Republican ranks
“Advisers Predicted ‘Debacle of Epic Proportions’ [Steve Schmidt]”
Steve did not appear to have had a great track record.
This confirms it.
I do not know where this quote came from but it works for me:”Know Ye by your enemies.”. Also in the case of the Anti-Palin snipers “Birds of a feather f- -ck together”.
I doubt highly if Joe is even thinking about the debate in a bad or good way. He won the vice Presidency, she didn’t. I think he could care less if she won that debate or not. Why do we????
No kidding. Having read her book, I am convinced that McInsanes staff were a fifth column in the party.
Because some of us are interested in, you know, this thing called history? And this other thing called politics?
Why should I care whether "Joe" the boob or even Palin are thinking about the debate? It's of great interest to those of us fascinated with the inside story of campaigns.
If you're not interested...why did you even click on the story...or respond to a post about a subject you don't care about?
Sarah is given all the credit for keeping the election as close as it was.
That was not a close election at all. 355 to 188? That is not close. ROTFLMAO.
Maybe it should have been called "How not to Run a Campaign".
Probably being prodded by Steele and the GOPers to help cool down the Sarah fever pitch.They can forget it...
hear that,Romney? FORGET IT. Sarah’s the one,and that’s that.
When I first heard of Palin, I read her bio and thought, “She’s great! There’s NO WAY McCain would pick her.”
Meanwhile, the people running the McCain campaign suffered a loss that was truly catastrophic.
She won the minute she asked, ‘Can I call you Joe?’. Joe got all googly-eyed infatuated with her and lost. It was a kill with one swing of the sword.
Oh say it ain’t so, Obiden! LOL ;-P
This schmidt guy is a real slug—probably the “campaign staff” who anonymously released all the slanderous comments about Sarah right after the election. What a scumbag!
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