Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
See also, The Hill, "McCain: Palin Not a Quitter."MR. GREGORY: Let me turn to politics. You must have been shocked to see Governor Sarah Palin resign as governor.
SEN. McCAIN: Well, I wasn't shocked. Obviously, I was a bit surprised, but I wasn't shocked. I understand that Sarah made the decision where she can be most effective for Alaska and for the country. I love and respect her and her family. I'm grateful that she agreed to run with me. I am confident she will be a major factor in the national scene and, and in Alaska, as well.
MR. GREGORY: But you say you were surprised a little bit. Why?
SEN. McCAIN: Well, because she had not called me. We've discussed it since and I better understand the reasons for her decision.
MR. GREGORY: What were they?
SEN. McCAIN: Look, there's--well, how could she best serve? How could she most effectively serve Alaska and the country? And that was her decision.
*****
MR. GREGORY: She made a promise to the voters to serve out her term, didn't she?SEN. McCAIN: I don't know if there was a "promise," but I do know that she will be an effective player on the national stage. And I will say, I have never seen the sustained personal family attacks that were made on Sarah Palin and her family in, in, in my life. Carl Cannon has a very interesting piece about the media establishment and the attacks that were made on her, and I'm sure that that had some impact. Ethics charge after ethics charge, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of, worth of legal fees. But the fact is she is very popular with our Republican base. She will be a strong voice. I chose her because she was a reformer, because she beat an incumbent governor, she was a popular Republican of her own party, she ignited our base, she did a great job as my running mate even under the most sustained personal attacks that...
MR. GREGORY: Right.
SEN. McCAIN: ...in certainly recent American political history.
MR. GREGORY: But, Senator McCain, you have faced personal torture, personal attacks, political attacks, investigations. You have never resigned from anything. Is it consistent with your qualities of leadership to resign an elected post like this?
*****
MR. GREGORY: You think she's qualified to seek the high, highest office in the land?
SEN. McCAIN: I know she's qualified. I know she's qualified.
MR. GREGORY: She is qualified?
SEN. McCAIN: Sure. Absolutely.
MR. GREGORY: No doubt about it.
SEN. McCAIN: No doubt about it. She has all the right instincts, all the right principles. She was a, she was a, a mayor, she's a governor. She understands the challenges that families face. She has, she has a great background, and I am confident that she will continue to play, as I say, a major role.
Plus, Tammy Bruce, "Palin Hints at Independent Conservative Movement" (via Memeorandum).
Too late, Senator McRino.
ReplyDeleteThe time to have stood up for and defended your VP pick was back during the campaign, when it might have actually made a difference.
Instead, you wait until Obama has maneuvered this country to the point where we are but two congressional votes away from landing head-first on the ash-heap of history.
Nice going there, Senator.
Please, do America-and your party, a huge favor.
Retire.
-Dave
"She has all the right instincts, all the right principles. She was a, she was a, a mayor, she's a governor. She understands the challenges that families face. She has, she has a great background..."
ReplyDeleteAnd she quit halfway in to her first term.
Which is probably the right move. She couldn't take the heat, so she got out so a real leader could step in and finish the job.
She has a great future subbing in the Hasselbeck chair on "The View" someday.
Dear Mr. Douglas: Not the least damage McC has done to the GOP is agreeing to interviews where Gregory can smugly ask him, "How can you say SP isn't a quitter, compared to your own record in Vietnam?" thereby slamming SP while preening in the reflected glory of his own nobility. He is back in business at the same old stand: being patted on the head by the press as the "good Republican" even while a blackjack is in the press's other hand ready to slug him should he get out of line. He then compounds his idiocy by trying to say that being elected to public office isn't a promise to serve out the full term. That's the sort of bunkum we'd expect from The One, faced with a hideous economic crisis (misery index over 30, say), people no longer bowing down, and deciding he'll quit since the meanies are saying such nasty things about him.
ReplyDeleteIf McC is serious about boosting SP, he'll do it by leading Steve Schmidt by the ear, crying that it hurts John, it hurts, out to one of those press conferences McC is addicted to, and spank Schmidt until he bawls that its all his fault, and he'll never say anything bad about SP again---at least until a reporter asks him again. Otherwise the best thing McC could do would be to swallow a pint of nitroglycerin and go for a motorbike ride in a canyon somewhere.
SP has enough troubles, so many self created, without being defended by such zany assassins.
Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster