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

[songman]

Check out the new McCain youtube song/video parody - "McCain's Way".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaQOAnwdIVg

You can also check out the Palin parody "The Lady is a Sham", also by PoliticalRalph

[arnray]

Go after the low information voters with a low information candidate. Makes sense.

[ResistanceisFutile]

The McCain Campaign is the pot calling the kettle black.

If Palin is dumb they are dumber for picking her.

I 'd like to continue this post, but I only know a few synonyms for dumb and stupid.

[NoWMDs]

A bird cannot fly with just it's Right Wing, it needs both wings to soar. That's what Barack will do when he gets into office, bring people and the country together.

[NoSillyName]

Very poetic, NWMD!

[dirtfreak]

Palin is a lethal combination of Bush and Cheney - she has the ignorance of W, and the obsessive ruthlessness of Cheney.

[Deparis]

Great point.

[sophiej]

don't forget the ruthless ambition of Eve Harrington. :-)
see the summary for "All About Eve" on IMDB.com

[dirtfreak]

Wow, yeah! But that was fiction; I don't think even Bette Davis could play someone as ruthless as Queen Sarah of AK.

[oscartucker]

Palin is givining a "policy speech" about energy now; she is not speaking "for herself"--it has been written for her (two or three periods of applauds). She does not sound like an "energy expert". (I wish someone would work with her on the run-on, run-on sentences.)

[DannyEastVillage]

the run-on sentences are a symptom of anxiety. She's in way over her head--and she knows it.

[filo]

Re Sarah Palin:

Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Mark Twain

[TXfemmom]

McCain and his aides have nothing to scream and yell about. McCain used extremely poor judgement in selecting her, as he didn't know her, hadn't vetted her, and was just bowing to the right wing Evangelicals. With that kind of judgement he got what he deserved but the country deserves not to have McCain and Palin.

[Zoe2]

This is exactly why I thought from the beginning that his VP choice was bad. McCain had no experience in working with Palin. It's like when two people meet and say they are in love and that they are getting married after only 2 meetings. The chances of that marriage lasting are slim. Obama has worked with Biden. We need a president and vice president that know they can work together and challenge each other to be better, kind of like a marriage.

[MYSTERIOUS]

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HANNITY AND THE OTHER USUAL SUSPECTS SHOULD READ THIS COLUMN. THEY SEEM SO DUMBFOUNDED WHEN IT COMES TO GOVERNOR PALIN. IT IS SO OBVIOUS THAT SHE WAS ONLY PICKED DUE TO THE SITUATION WITH SENATOR CLINTON. IT BACKFIRED. THIS IS AMERICA, AND WE NEED SERIOUS PEOPLE RUNNING FOR SERIOUS OFFICES IN GOVERNMENT. I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE MADE IT AS GOVERNOR WITH 80% APPROVAL (WHICH HAS DROPPED SINCE THEN.) OBAMA/BIDEN '08 OH-YEAH!!!!

[balrog221]

McCain's energy czar should explain how fossil fuels 100 million+ years old came to be given that in her view the earth was created 5-6000 years ago. If it was the creator then perhaps she can ask him to replenish the resource. Energy policy at work.

[hortonhearsawho]

" God has so richly"....sarah palins energy policy.

[ProPsych]

pupbayer - it is really tiresome to have you Palin/McCain supporters say any old thing that comes to the top of your head, without one bit of truth or shred of evidence. Palin knows less about national and international issues that the average American who can read a newspaper. I have more in-depth discussions about foreign policy at lunch with my friends than Sarah Palin has been able to do, and we're not running for the number 2 spot in the country.

Kennedy was a decorated WWII vet and a 14 year congressman/senator. Carter, the least experience of the three you mentioned, was a state senator and a governor prior to his election. In naming him, you make the best argument for why we SHOULDN'T elect Palin, as Carter's presidency was considered to be a failed one, and his experience was most similar to Palin's.

Finally, Clinton had little national experience, but he was a brilliant policy wonk who was deeply involved in reformation of the Democratic Party on the national level. His success in bringing the longest period of peace and prosperity to our country in recent times (including a balanced budget with a huge surplus) speaks more about his ability to understand national and international issues than anything else.

[BlueFury1971]

This story just confirms what most people figured out after the Charlie Gibson & Katie Couric interviews.Why so many notable Repubs have jumped parties & supported Obama. Sarah Palin doesn't need to be anywhere near the White House ......EVER. And it speaks volumes about the judgement of John McCain that at 72 years of age,he honestly thinks she's fit to replace him if something should happen. That is scary beyond belief.

[dawsonjr]

McCain is suffering from alzheimers, I think he actually forgot he chose her, and when his aides told him he had to go with the flow.

[RFBorjal]

It all boils down to one thing: Sarah Palin is a boneheaded choice for Veep. Serves McCain right.

[hortonhearsawho]

The energy expet is speaking now....