McCain says he regrets choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate

American Thinker ^ | 05/05/2018 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

The forthcoming final memoir from Senator John McCain, titled The Restless Wave, and a nearly two-hour-long HBO documentary on its way seem to be being used as an opportunity to settle some scores. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times has obtained copies of both books, and has spoken with the ailing senator at his ranch, where he seems to be spending his final days. This leaped out at me:

While he continues to defend Ms. Palin’s performance, Mr. McCain uses the documentary and the book to unburden himself about not selecting Mr. Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent, as his running mate.

He recalls that his advisers warned him that picking a vice-presidential candidate who caucused with Democrats and supported abortion rights would divide Republicans and doom his chances.

It is odd indeed to call it “sound advice” and to simultaneously wish he had disregarded it. Logically, this seems to mean that he wishes he had lost, while making a futile gesture towards bipartisanship, or maybe just avoiding contamination with the populism of Sarah Palin. It is an open secret that members of McCain’s campaign sought to sabotage Palin during the campaign, apparently preferring to lose rather than tolerate her views and her persona.

This odd, unsourced paragraph written by Martin offers a clue:

 Yet many in Mr. McCain’s own party believe that, by selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, he bears at least a small measure of blame for unleashing the forces of grievance politics and nativism within the Republican Party.

I strongly suspect that McCain himself expressed these views to Martin, but asked not to be quoted.

[catbertz]

More proof of his, and his staff’s, stupidity. I have little doubt that she brought more votes than he did. Her events were packed similar to Trump’s, McCains not so much.

[corlorde]

“McCain says he regrets choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate”

That’s his regret. On his deathbed. That is a fitting footnote to his life, I suppose.

[DietCoke]

Me, too. Loved Sarah!

[pepsionice]

His statement is that the Joe Lieberman (Dem turned into Indep) would have been the choice. Based on that logic...the 59,000,000 votes would have drifted down to around 35,000,000 and roughly half of all Republicans would have just stayed home and not voted.

You can go back to the young naval officer days and demonstrate that this guy was about as incompetent as you can get....never getting any wiser.

[libh8er]

McCain is the Hillary of the GOP. Both share the same politiccs. Both lost, first to a member of their own party and then after getting the sympathy nomination, in the presidential election. In defeat both became nasty and bitter, their bitterness growing by the day. And they are both approaching the end of their lives with McCain almost at the finish line.

[dennisw]

The North Vietnamese messed up his mind. He never should have been trusted with any high office. He was an insane backstabber during the GW Bush presidency.

[central_va]

The toomah has completely taken over.

[Skepolitic]

Anticipating his demise, the progressive media is getting ahead of the curve in their praise of McCain for his criticism of all things conservative.

These are the same progressive journalists who, in 2008, had discovered that McCain was in the pockets of oligarchs and a closet racist who spoke to his deplorable supporters in code words.

Nobody seems to remember that Obama supporter retired Gen. Wesley Clark criticized McCain on Face the Nation: “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” Then, seeming to have the Obama campaign’s permission to besmirch McCain’s military record, progressive media issued commentary far more demeaning than Trump’s definition of a hero.

The progressive media loved McCain’s “maverick” participation with Democratic Senators in resisting any conservative domestic initiative. But, of course, progressives would pull out the stops if McCain was no longer useful, which would be the case if he defeated Obama (or Hillary.) McCain is a textbook example of a useful idiot.

[ZephyrTX]

You ever talk with a dying person who has cancer in their brains? They say some of the weirdest stuff you ever heard.

Quit giving this very sick man who has a “highly aggressive and incurable brain tumor” a podium and a microphone. Take whatever he says with a grain of salt. Let him go home, die in as much peace & dignity as cancer will allow.

While I never liked his politics in the first place, he’s fighting a fight now that he can’t win and anything is apt to come out of his mouth that he wouldn’t ever say while in his right, healthy mind.

Anyone who takes this man seriously at this time in his life should have their own heads examined.

[Sans-Culotte]

I always thought he’d pick Lieberman, and was stunned when he didn’t. I would never have voted for a McCain/Lieberman ticket.

[caww]

....." he has the audacity and arrogance to invite and disinvite people to his own funeral, like it's party".....

Bitter old man to the end.

[Kazan]

I wish I could kick this MF in the balls.

Would you settle for him ending up in hell?

[Kazan]

Don’t let the casket lid hit you on the way out.

[funfan]

This is very true.

[Doogle]

...betcha 85% of his shipmates regret voting for him...

[Duchess47]

Betcha 85% of his shipmates did not vote for him to begin with, nothing to regret.

The other 15%, who knows.

[Peeps47]

Juan is a bitter old bastard. He can’t stop being a nasty prick even as he lays on his deathbed. He should be buried in a swamp in Arizona or DC. We are seeing why he was called songbird. He got that nickname because he doesn’t know how to shut his mouth.

[Savage Beast]

I regret voting for McCain.

[SoFloFreeper]

I don’t see a quote from McCain in the excerpt indicating regret.

[Rebelbase]