Thursday February 16, 2012

McCain says Palin didn't hurt presidential bid

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  • 0

    Altria

    McCain's a good man, we saw that in 2000 and during his concession speech.

    Nice to see him covering up for Palin's blunders.

  • 0

    adaydream

    Times are a changin and John McCain's politics aren't changing to keep up.

    I do applaud John McCain for running a fairly clean contest. There were negative attacks from both sides, but he kept a level above the slime.

    Not that Barack didn't. He did.

    When John McCain could have been a gutter candidate, get stayed above that.

    Nice to see him stand up for Palin. < :-)

    Moderator: Please do not refer to Obama as Barack ... unless, of course, you refer to everyone else in your post by their first names for the sake of consistency.

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    Of COURSE he said that! I mean, what's the guy gonna do, get up on the podium (after hiding out for a week) and say, "My HUGE mistake in selecting Palin is a big part of what cost me the election". No, he's not going to say that.

    Fortunately, the rest of the US and the world can see this for what it is; posturing to help save a bit of face for both himself and the GOP. And of course, not to insult Palin.

  • 0

    powderfinger

    Understatement of the year. Palin was drawing 60,000 people at some venues. There were jokes that the ticket should be reversed. Donations soared once she appeared on the scene. Conservative talk shows gave the best idea of her popularity. In a move that was unprecedented in the talk radio business Hugh Hewitt went a month accepting only female callers to his show. The response, the enthusiasm that this woman brought delighted and baffled him and huge numbers of his predominantly male audience.

    She will be around for quite some time.

  • 0

    skipthesong

    “She’s a great reformer.” And that is really all it takes these days to get elected in the US. Not that I am saying Obama or anyone, it just seems if the people like the way you look or sound, and I think Palin looked good, you'll be pushed through And there is the team effort of a campaign. Obama had some really talented people on his team. And in this day and age, where speech writers write for the candidates and all I think I have a great chance of running.

    Smitty: "after hiding out for a week)" Man, give the dude a break. He lost an election and was grilled by the girls from the view on national TV and in front of his wife...

    powderfinger: "Donations soared once she appeared on the scene. Conservative talk shows gave the best idea of her popularity". Really, I didn't know that. I guess it was hidden by the media, because that doesn't seem like in your face news...

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    "McCain says Palin didn't hurt presidential bid"

    There were thousands of Republicans who, once they saw how totally unqualified Sarah Palin was, voted Democrat or didn't vote at all.

    mccain effectively threw his chances of winning, the hopes of all his supporters, and the GOP under the bus the moment he annouced his pick of Sarah Palin.

  • 0

    powderfinger

    "There were thousands of Republicans who, once they saw how totally unqualified Sarah Palin was, voted Democrat or didn't vote at all."

    And there were hundreds of thousands, probably millions, who voted McCain because Palin was on the ticket.

    Stop and think about it.

    There was the usual switch voters want after 8 years of Republican rule; Bush was polling in the low 20's; the economy is very shaky; McCain was the oldest candidate ever to run; the media was overwhelmingly behind Obama; McCain was outspent 10 to 1 by Obama.

    It is a miracle that the Republicans did as well as they did.

    That miracle was Sarah Palin.

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    powderfinger - "She [Palin] will be around for quite some time."

    Let's hope she is, because the longer she stays on the scene, the longer the GOP will stay out of power :-)

  • 0

    goodDonkey

    mccain effectively threw his chances of winning, the hopes of all his supporters, and the GOP under the bus the moment he announced his pick of Sarah Palin.

    powderfinger said:

    Understatement of the year

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    powderfinger - you are correct to a point, but I think the greater achievement, or 'miracle,' as you put it, was how Obama won considering he had no big name network, didn't have a well-known brand name and didn't have much money.

    Considering also that he is half black, the fact that he came out of nowhere and won against a very well known, highly experienced war veteran john mccain - on his first attempt, is astonishing almost beyond belief.

    And thanks to john mccain's stunningly stupid pick of Sarah Palin, a candidate whose glaring lack of knowledge raised massive question marks from Left to Right and that also was instrumental in causing top Republicans like Gen. Colin Powell to vote Democrat, john mccain lost.

    To his credit, he is blaming himself. He should be - he clearly made the wrong decision in picking Palin.

    Had mccain picked Tom Ridge, it would very likely have been john and Cindy getting the White House tour last Monday.

    You have you to take responsibility for your decisions, and john mccain is.

  • 0

    powderfinger

    "Let's hope she is, because the longer she stays on the scene, the longer the GOP will stay out of power."

    You don't really know much of US politics, do you.

    Palin will most likely determine who gets Ted Stevens' seat in the Senate.

    She is now free of pseudo-conservative McCain and his bumbling team, clueless about the decisive role the internet played in Obama's victory.

    She has a book deal in the works and has plenty of talk show appearances in the pipeline.

    Sky's the limit for now.

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    You've also got to wonder about the startlingly obvious - if Palin was so talented and so right for the job, why didn't voters see more of her?

    Dem. VP pick Joe Biden racked up nearly 200 interviews after he was picked.

    Palin did...how many interviews....5?

    Alarms bells were rings as they should have been.

    Not only did Palin try to cover up her complete lack of national security experience by saying she lived 'close to Russia,' but she couldn't name a single Supreme Court ruling she disagreed with, and as if any more proof was needed that she simply wasn't ready for the job, she didn't even know the job description of the position she had been picked for!

    Look, there are some instances where gaps in knowledge can be excused, but there are others - in particular like Palin's recent gaffe where it appeared **she didn't even know Africa was a continent **- that are simply inexcusable.

    On top of that, exit polls have underlined that mccain's pick of Palin hindered rather than helped him.

    She was a bad choice from Day 1.

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    powderfinger - "Sky's the limit [for Palin] for now."

    Now I know you don't have much idea about American politics.

  • 0

    goodDonkey

    I forgot to credit McCain for not acknowledging the plain truth that Palin ruin any chances he had. Once he got out of the campaign mode he is behaving honorably.

    Meanwhile Palin is holding her own press conferences now. If Alaska ends up with Ted Stevens winning the senate election (even though uncounted ballots are turning up all over the place) then I am hoping for Sarah Palin as the next Senator from the Great State of Alaska while Ted sits in a prison cell. I really, really want to hear Sarah speak on the national level more often.

    Don't call me a hater because I think Palin is a Dork. I don't hate Palin I just don't want to have to deal with Dorks.

  • 0

    Nessie

    John McCain said Tuesday that Sarah Palin did not damage his presidential bid, and he dismissed as typical campaign sniping anonymous criticism aimed at her following their crushing defeat.

    What's he gonna say? "If I'd properly vetted he I'd have realized what a dingbat she is"? He's not about to undercut Palin's political career. He'll leave that to Palin, who's more than able in that department.

    However, McCain never directly addressed the embarrassing controversy over Palin’s expensive campaign wardrobe purchased by the Republican National Committee... The Alaska governor has said in interviews she did not ask for, or want, the $150,000-plus wardrobe for her and her family.

    At age 70-something you'd think he'd have learned the cardinal rule: Never never never buy a woman a whole new wardrobe without her knowing.

  • 0

    Nessie

    "She [Palin] will be around for quite some time."

    Until the Rapture, anyway, at the very least.

  • 0

    Nessie

    “She’s a great reformer.”

    Ooh la la! Sounds like someone's warm for her re-form.

  • 0

    adaydream

    heh...heh...heh

    they become gods don't they. < :-)

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    goodDonkey: "I forgot to credit McCain for not acknowledging the plain truth that Palin ruin any chances he had. Once he got out of the campaign mode he is behaving honorably."

    Not THAT is something I can admit to, and have said before; now that the campaign is over and McCain has lost, he's back to his old self, more or less. He's returned to being a more honourable man than he was the entire election campaign, and he was VERY graceful to Palin in the Leno interview. Good job, McCain. I swear, if the man could have spoken like this during the campaign, focused on the issues instead of smearing the competition, he would have stood a great chance of winning. Oh, and if he chose someone other than Palin as his VP choice.

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    powderfinger: "Understatement of the year. Palin was drawing 60,000 people at some venues."

    HAHAHAHAhaha! Well, I guess that's the OVERstatement of the year. Show us one venue where she drew 60,000 people, my friend, and don't try to include the GOP conventions in the mix -- they don't count.

  • 0

    sailwind

    Smith,

    Always happy to help.

    Sept. 21: A Sarah Palin rally draws a crowd estimated as high as 60,000 in The Villages, the boomers' mega-retirement community north of Orlando. Analysis: It was Palin at her best, firing up the Republican base while enhancing the reputation of The Villages as the No. 1 Florida destination for GOP candidates (exit 329 off I-75). Sept. 29: In the GOP-leaning Sarasota-Bradenton market, Obama raises $750,000 to McCain's $209,000. "We have far more momentum," a local Democrat says. Analysis: The Democrats had far more money, too — the reverse of what usually happens in Florida races.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/article884455.ece

  • 0

    memyselfI

    Bad mistake Bad choice Bad time Bad everything !!!!

  • 0

    memyselfI

    McCain should have been President the last two elections rather then Bush !!!!

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Palin was the wrong candidate in the right place at the wrong time. :-)

    Heh, mccain will be ruefully bashing himself for the rest of his days for picking such an intellectual lightweight in Palin.

    That said, I will totally back her should she decide to run in future.

    Sarah Palin '12! :-)

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Heh, if Sarah Palin runs again, barring any large scale upgrading of her intellectual capabilities, the members of the Democratic majority in the House and Congress will be busy spending the first few months of their next term welding their seats to the floor.

    Sarah Palin '12! :-)

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    One of the most valuable lessons I learned from witnessing the flame out of mccain's presidential campaign is that it is essential to make wise, well-informed decisions.

    john mccain did neither, and he has no one to blame but himself for the collapse of his campaign due to his decision to pick Sarah Palin.

    Sarah Palin '12! :-)

  • 0

    Nessie

    I hear she's moving down the block in the direction of Russia to gain foreign policy experience.

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Nessie, I live next to a bank. According to Sarah Palin's logic, I should be a finance expert.

    I'm not.

    Is it just me, or is Sarah Palin's logic flawed? :-)

    And why is it that not one single Republican on JT ever questioned her logic on this point? Sarge didn't, Sailwind didn't. RomeoRamen didn't.

    Hmmmmmm.....maybe they agreed deep in their hearts that Sarah Palin's close proximity to Russia did, in fact, give her critical national security experience? LOL!!!

  • 0

    powderfinger

    smithinjapan:HAHAHAHAhaha! Well, I guess that's the OVERstatement of the year. Show us one venue where she drew 60,000 people, my friend,

    sailwind:Always happy to help. Sept. 21: A Sarah Palin rally draws a crowd estimated as high as 60,000 in The Villages, the boomers' mega-retirement community north of Orlando.

    Hey, thanks, sailwind. You made that look pretty easy. Posters as uninformed as our Smithinjapan offer the best proof of the media's bias.

  • 0

    romulus3

    Palin destroyed McCain. She is awful. She would be more suited as a TV shopping host than President of the USA.

  • 0

    Helter_Skelter

    In 2012, Palin will be to Obama what Reagan was to Carter in 1980. Someone to pull the country out its failed venture in socialism. Remember stagflation under Carter? Slow economic growth, high unemployment, high inflation. That's what we'll have in four years with Obama, and his quest to "change" America...into a banana republic.

  • 0

    Betzee

    In 2012, Palin will be to Obama what Reagan was to Carter in 1980.

    I watched a segment on CNN tonight in which young Piper Palin is interviewed by Matt Lauer in the presence of her parents. Matt asked if she missed a lot of school and she responds, "A lot." He then asked if it was hard to catch up, "Oh, yes, really hard." Finally he asked, "Would you want to do this again?" "I don't know" was the little girl's response. At this point her mother interrupts, "Would you like to do it again, sister?" Young Piper, on cue, informs Matt Lauer, "Oh, Yes!!!!"

    It's a little difficult to imagine the Obamas putting their girls in that situation. Or most families for that matter. It was profoundly disconcerting to watch.

    Sarah Palin is going to give herself too much exposure and then people will lose interest (if they haven't already). Jackie Kennedy, by contrast, understood exactly where her appeal to the public lay and doled out enough information so nobody would ever lose interest. Knowing when to hold back is an important skill that seems to have eluded Governor Palin.

  • 0

    Madverts

    skelter, are you actually palnning to learn what socialism is, or would your rather people continue to laugh at your claims?

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Helter - "In 2012, Palin will be to Obama what Reagan was to Carter in 1980. Someone to pull the country out its failed venture in socialism."

    ha ha! It's about time to come back to the real world, my friend.

    In 2012, marketing and political science students the world over will still be laughing at Sarah Palin and laughing at the GOP wondering how on Earth she was chosen as the best of the bunch back in '08.

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Helter - "That's what we'll have in four years with Obama, and his quest to "change" America...into a banana republic."

    I love it how diehard Republicans like Helter Skelter seem to have already convinced themselves that after 8 years of Bush failures, an Obama Administration will bring destruction and ruin to the US. LOL!!!

    The Republicans get more desperate the more they don't try.

  • 0

    sailwind

    It was profoundly disconcerting to watch.

    Then why did you? You just Can't get enough of the lady can you Betz.

  • 0

    Betzee

    Then why did you? You just Can't get enough of the lady can you Betz.

    Cuz I was sitting in an airport lounge, a captive audience so to speak. I don't have a cable hook-up myself and get almost all my information for written sources.

    But since we're on this topic, I spoke to a woman who has three grown children. She was aghast Sarah Palin brought young Trig to those gatherings where she attracted so many (as you have documented). "I would never have taken my children at that age to any place full of people (and germs)."

  • 0

    sailwind

    Back to she's a rotten parent angle again Betz?

    Thought you'd already plowed that ground pretty hard, during this whole campaign.

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Betzee - "Knowing when to hold back is an important skill that seems to have eluded Governor Palin."

    As has a lot of pretty important items of basic knowledge that Republicans, including many on this board, seem to conveniently ignore knowing it is completely inexcusable. :-)

    Sarah Palin - WHY???

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Sail - "Thought you'd already plowed that ground pretty hard, during this whole campaign."

    I think you well and truly plowed your vote into the ground when you decided to vote for the mccain/Palin ticket.

    Don't say I didn't warn you. :-)

  • 0

    Betzee

    Back to she's a rotten parent angle again Betz? Thought you'd already plowed that ground pretty hard, during this whole campaign.

    I find listening to the opinions of others interesting. Voters can decide for any reason whether to support a candidate or not. Maybe somebody wants to vote for her because he thinks "it's cool she hunts moose." Would you complain?

  • 0

    adaydream

    McCain has tried to be a gentleman all along, even if his handlers wanted to be ugly. < :-)

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    sailwind: "Always happy to help. Sept. 21: A Sarah Palin rally draws a crowd estimated as high as 60,000 in The Villages, the boomers' mega-retirement community north of Orlando."

    Fine and dandy. I'm more than happy to admit when I'm wrong. Still, that's about ONE such crowd, with no actual links to back up the stats (not suggesting they don't exist), do you have any more? I can show you proof of crowds where Palin/McCain showed up with about 2000 or less whereas Obama addressed crowds with far, far higher numbers. What's more, can you give me crowds that show up in such high numbers who aren't expected to turn out as such in support of their party? I mean, hell, even in Europe massive crowds showed up to see Obama.

    Just asking because clearly there is a far, far larger number of people in the US who dislike Palin than who support her. May not be something you like, but it's true.

  • 0

    Molenir

    McCain has tried to be a gentleman all along, even if his handlers wanted to be ugly. < :-)

    How long did it take him to come out and defend Palin? You call this the actions of a gentleman? I certainly don't.

    I mean, hell, even in Europe massive crowds showed up to see Obama.

    Is this supposed to be a good thing?

    And most of the people I've talked to about Palin, thought very well of her. I know that a lot of people that weren't planning to vote for McCain, ended up voting for Palin. And thats what you need in a VP candidate. Someone who can bring in the voters.

  • 0

    adaydream

    Molenir - You opinion noted.

    So what was McCain supposed to do? Go out early 11/5 morning, get on the street corner and start defending Sarah. < :-)

  • 0

    USAFdude

    McCain says Palin didn't hurt presidential bid

    She didn't hurt Obama's, either! Thank God!

  • 0

    Molenir

    So what was McCain supposed to do? Go out early 11/5 morning, get on the street corner and start defending Sarah.

    No, calling a press conference, and denouncing the people attacking her would have been sufficient.

    I've never liked the guy, but if he had done this, if he had come out strong against these people, I could have at least respected him a little more then I do.

  • 0

    frontandcentre

    Palin was a ludicrous joke of a VP candidate, and I am personally delighted at the fatal damage that she inflicted on McCain's presidential bid.

    I sincerely hope she does run in 2012 - she is going to look like a political midget next to Obama, I suspect. No credible GOP candidate will bother running in 4 years time anyway

  • 0

    jwills79

    I think Palin must first get past the other Republicans who will be trying to run for President. She doesn't have chance against them in my opinion let alone President Obama.

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