Free Republic

I had never met Steve Schmidt and only knew him through the media. When I found myself seated at the former McCain campaign manager's table at a Washington dinner hosted by The Week magazine, it was like a flashback to the 2008 campaign. Schmidt is instantly recognizable with his trademark shaved head, his bulldog physique, and the restless intensity that marks him as a political operative of the first order. He had spent 10 weeks trying to mold Sarah Palin into a plausible national candidate, and when the campaign ended, he assessed her shortcomings, as she did his, in what...

TUCSON — They have rarely spoken in 17 months. Their relationship, as America now knows, turned testy before they parted ways. But as at many family reunions, the old feelings were set aside as Sarah Palin embraced Senator John McCain here on Friday and argued that he should not be unseated by a conservative challenger. “We need this new blood coming into the system and new party officials and folks who are willing to stand up and speak out for common-sense conservative solutions,” Ms. Palin said. “But we also need statesmen and heroes like John McCain to help us get...