Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
Chapter 5 of that fascinating and in-depth article shows how completely false this statement is. McCain's first choice was Lieberman, but he rejected him because Lieberman was pro-choice and he knew he needed a pro-life candidate to shore up the base.
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False? Read what Chapter Five was saying. Of course, background is necessary to understand the words.
First, the campaign was being run by Schmidt when Palin was pushed up the list. Previously, McCain had a long list of vetted VP selections that included Lieberman. Lieberman was even on McCain's campaign in the last week of August. At that point, Palin was neither considered nor vetted.
Who is Steve Schmidt? He ran Karl Rove's war room in George Jr's 2004 campaign. He then worked for Cheney in the White House. He worked as an unpaid volunteer for McCain in the early days. However he eventually moved up to run the McCain campaign in its final months - even replacing many long time McCain advisers. Steve Schmidt talked McCain out of his VP choice by saying his choices were not right wing. Even though McCain was nominated mostly by moderate Republicans and independents, Steve Schmidt then pushed his favorite choice - Palin.
Yes, McCain did agree to put Palin on the ticket. But only after the one week rush. Palin went from completely unknown, even to McCain, to be selected in only five days with Schmidt, Salter, and Davis pushing McCain to reject all his preferred choices and select her. Reason why? Only she was right wing conservative. The rush to reject all others and put Palin on the ticket was pushed mostly by Schmidt and Salter.
Well, yes, you could say George Jr choose to go to war with Saddam. And yes, you could say George Jr grounded all airplanes during 11 September. You could say that George Jr authorized torture and international kidnapping. Yes, because he was the commander in chief. In reality, George Jr never made any of those decisions. As even Powell noted, everyone left the room except Cheney. Two minutes later, George Jr would announce his decision.
McCain also signed off on a last minute decision really made by his staff. Palin was not McCain's choice until last minute pressure eliminated everyone on his months long VP list. Only the unknown Palin was left. Even McCain did not know Palin one week previously. Why was Palin then selected as VP? She was the only choice of a campaign director who worked previously for Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.
Let's see. McCain got nominated mostly by voters who were moderate Republicans or independents. Why was Palin selected? Schmidt said a moderate VP would not attract sufficient moderates and independents. Palin was to get right wing extremists to vote for McCain. It did not happen AND Palin also alienated some of McCain's primary supporters - moderate and independent voters.
That is what Chapter 5 says once we add who Schmidt is and other facts such the time line. Chapter 5 even notes that Democratic Senator Lieberman - McCain's number one choice - was on McCain's campaign bus even the last week of Aug - just before Palin was pushed forward to replace five McCain preferences. Yes, you could say that Palin was chosen by McCain - after Steve Schmidt, et al left no one but Palin to choose.
Bottom line reasoning – Palin was picked because only she was from the party’s extremist wing. All of McCain’s preferences were too moderate according to Schmidt. Chapter 5 says different from Clodfobble once we add additional facts such as who were McCain's supporters, who was Schmidt, and why McCain's preferred VP selections were eliminated leaving nothing but Palin to pick from.