Top McCain Aides: 'Palin Simply Knew Nothing About National And International Issues'

The McCain campaign continues to snipe at each other over the handling, and subsequent effect, of Sarah Palin on the campaign trail. According Nicole Wallace, a senior McCain aide who is one of Palin's handlers and helped to orchestrate her initial rollout, there is an 'organized campaign to lay blame' for things at her feet. Robert Draper, however, offers a defense of Wallace, saying she's kept quiet about things that a couple of McCain higher-ups have leaked to him, and that Wallace was in a very unenviable position:

I'm sympathetic to Eskew and Wallace, and not just because they're decent people. They've held their tongue from leaking what a couple of McCain higher-ups have told me--namely, that Palin simply knew nothing about national and international issues. Which meant, as one such adviser said to me: "Letting Sarah be Sarah may not be such a good thing." It's a grim binary choice, but apparently it came down to whether to make Palin look like a scripted robot or an unscripted ignoramus. I was told that Palin chafed at being defined by her discomfiting performances in the Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Sean Hannity interviews. She wanted to get back out there and do more. Well, if you're Eskew and Wallace, what do you say to that? Your responsibility isn't the care and feeding of Sarah Palin's ego; it's the furtherance of John McCain's quest for the presidency.

Draper also reports that McCain snubbed Palin during a long ride on the Straight Talk Express.

Comments

[seattledemocrat]

If only I had known that the VP job offered on the job training, I would have applied!

[Lotus19]

LMAOOOOOOOOOOO.

[Get Real]

So like what did you expect? Palin, regardless of her qualifications, is a typical dog and pony show political response.

Typical campaign thinking: Who should we choose for a candidate? That's easy, find the best person that will LOOK like a good candidate. It doesn't matter if they ARE good or not, they just have to LOOK good. After all, voters are stupid. We can sell our choice to the voter, there doesn't have to be any substance to back up our choice. Dontworryaboutit.

The problem is, Democrats AND Republicans do exactly the same thing every frigging election. Is it no wonder that most politicians forget they even have constituents until 3 months before their re-election? I say it's time to throw every one of them out and start over.

[paixa3]

Excellent poste. I hope that OB is brighter than most. As an independent, I hope he gets elected.

I have had enough of the rethuglicants FOREVER.

[realpolitic]

Palin can still see Russia from her house.

[musselmanm]

Starting to look like she will need some binoculars to see Russia from a cell.

[Georgia1992]

I'm so shocked, they lied to us. We knew that she didn't know.

[tbsykesopinion]

And who should know better than the people who quizzed her?

[TheTruthInLove]

What a revelation. Who would have ever thought this to be true? Can you hear the sarcasm in my typed words, but remember she is more qualified then Obama.

[FZliveson]

Then Obama, what?
Please don't bother trying to communicate until you can put what you mean on the screen, okay?
Sarah Palin in more qualified to give us more confusion, more fear, more religious bigotry, more rapture-seeking, more sexism, more violence and more tolerance of blase' uncivil non-servants.

[TheTruthInLove]

Please understand that I was being sarcastic before you attempt to blast me. I'm a Obama supporter.

[DirkdenHartogForObama]

It will be so great to have decent intelligent adults in the White House again.

Obama will have to start fumigating and exorcising it around the 10th of Jan uary.

[tbsykesopinion]

Funny!!

[Clairvoyance]

ROTFLMAO! EXORCISE!!

[bobbyperu]

Maybe Obama can hire Palin's witch doctor.

[VINSTERDUDE]

why is this race so close? as mizz maddow says,.."someone please talk me down!"

[IndianaMeg]

I think we already knew this. We all saw her interviews, right? Nice to hear at least some of the folks in the McCain camp are not drinking the Kool Aid though.

[Shikamaru]

Get it right!!! It is US, the crazy Liberal, progressive-thinking- Demoncrats, whom drink koolaid. I've learned to wear this badge with honor. I like Orange Koolaid, how about you?

oh yeah can't forget, we're socialists too, that's important, can't forget that.

Can you tell I spend a lot of time on Republican news sites? It's true, I like to educate myself thoroughly.

[DeeW]

So they knew this and picked her anyway. Well, that shows what kind of decision making he'll make as President.

[thirteen13]

McCain won't last four years as president. So his bimbo, Palin will become president and her husband will be her closest advisor. She will pick one of her childhood friends back home to be vice president.

Thank GOD; it's in GOD we trust. Maybe not so much trust if Obama loses

[LiverpoolEd]

This is what happen when men (McCain as the prime example) do not think with their head. They make bad choices.

[2876]

Not only does Palin know nothing about national and international issues but she knows nothing about constitutional issues as well. In her latest rants, Palin is accusing Obama of wanting to "rewrite" the constitution. This is really funny coming from the same lady who wanted to expand the powers of the vp...Palin dear....just go back to Alaska. Before your make any more crazy slanderous charges, please read the constitution.

[2labhome]

"Palin dear....just go back to Alaska"

Palin dear....GO BACK TO COLLEGE!

[thirteen13]

Palin dear....PLEASE GET A LIFE....

[2876]

She went to college...about 4-5 times. Didn't help her much then, doubt it will help her much now. I'd rather she just go back to Alaska so I don't have to hear from her or hear about her.

[rangem]

duh

[The Lorax]

ditto

[MichelleR2008]

We already knew the depth of her knowledge. Anyone who claims a knowledge or experience with another country because they can "see it" is certaintly unqualified for almost anything.

So tell me how is this news? Oh, I guess the McCain campaign is finally admitting what sane people already knew. Is it me or is the McCain campaign always a dollar short and a day late?

[blondecuban]

The Republicans and media have made it their mission to dumb down the masses. They chose Sarah because, among other things, they thought people were too stupid to realize that she had no substance, no experience, no curiosity about the world around herPalin for all the wrong reasons and their polling numbers reflect that. They believed that the masses would identify with her, but they were wrong.