Political Ruminations

Morning Quote: James Carville

James Carville on Mitt Romney’s tax returns during an interview with CBS News.

“ The only person who has seen Romney's taxes is John McCain and he took one look and picked Sarah Palin.”

Quote of the Day

“For me and the experience I had on this campaign is that there are worse things than losing. When a result happens that puts someone who’s not prepared to be president on the ticket, that’s a bad result. I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly. And I played a part in that. And I played a part in that because we were fueled by ambition to win.”

- Steve Schmidt, chief strategist for McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, re McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin (Morning Joe).

Video and Text Transcript: Obama’s Promise to Kill Bin Laden in 2008

Then Sen. Obama nails McCain in this debate on October 7, 2008. The relevant portion is bolded in the text below.

Watch:

BROKAW: Sen. McCain, thank you very much.

Next question for Sen. Obama, it comes from the F section and is from Katie Hamm (ph). Katie?

QUESTION: Should the United States respect Pakistani sovereignty and not pursue al Qaeda terrorists who maintain bases there, or should we ignore their borders and pursue our enemies like we did in Cambodia during the Vietnam War?

Morning Quote: Sarah Palin

In an interview with the editor of India Today, Palin blamed McCain for the loss of the 2008 presidential election:

I wasn’t the top of the ticket.

Morning Quote: Matt Damon on Sarah Palin

In 2008, actor Matt Damon talked about his fear that McCain would win, and Palin would ascend to the presidency, invoking a nightmare that many of us shared:

It's like a really bad Disney movie. The hockey mom, you know, 'oh, I'm just a hockey mom'... and she's facing down President Putin... It's totally absurd... it's a really terrifying possibility... I need to know if she really thinks that dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago. I want to know that, I really do. Because she's gonna have the nuclear codes.

10 Great Quotes About Sarah Palin by Republicans

1. Former Republican Secretary of State, General Colin Powell’s statement as he explained his reasons for endorsing Barack Obama in 2008:

I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made.

2. A McCain staffer talking to CNN about Palin’s penchant for going off-script:

She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.

3. The [Republican] President of the Alaska State Senate, Lyda Green on Palin’s qualifications to be the vice president or president:

She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

4. The Alaska State Speaker of the House, Republican John Harris, on Palin’s qualifications for the position of vice president:

She's old enough. She's a U.S. citizen.

5. In an interview with The Atlantic's Jefrey Goldberg, Conservative commentator, David Brooks, decries Sarah Palin’s anti-intellectualism.

[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. The more I follow politicians, the more I think experience matters, the ability to have a template of things in your mind that you can refer to on the spot, because believe me, once in office there's no time to think or make decisions.

6. The most damning quote comes from former chief strategist for Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, Matthew Dowd on Palin’s nomination:

[McCain] knows, in his gut, that he put somebody unqualified on the ballot. He knows that in his gut, and when this race is over that is something he will have to live with... He put somebody unqualified on that ballot and he put the country at risk, he knows that.

7.  Conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker, writes in her column in National Review:

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself. If Palin were a man, we'd all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she's a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

8. And, Parker goes on to say:

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

9. Finished ripping in to Palin, and McCain’s choice of Palin, Parker continues by asking Palin to step down:

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

10. Conservative writer, Christopher Hitchens, another noted Republican who endorsed Obama in 2008 after Palin’s nomination:

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. … On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.