McCain's verdict on Palin: more trouble than a pitbull:

[ehrnst]

Source: Guardian UK

<snip> So now we know what John McCain really thinks of his running mate Sarah Palin – and that's not just because of the awkward body language between them during his concession speech in Phoenix, Arizona.

The British ambassador reveals what the defeated presidential candidate really thinks of his running mate,

Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk, Wednesday November 05 2008 13.35 GMT

An exasperated McCain has been telling friends in recent weeks that Palin is even more trouble than a pitbull.

In one joke doing the rounds, the Republican presidential candidate has been asking friends: what the difference is between Sarah Palin and a pitbull? The friendly canine eventually lets go, is the McCain punchline.

McCain's joke is a skit on Palin's most famous line after she was picked as his surprise running mate. Palin delighted the Republican base when she said the only difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom was lipstick.

We owe the new glimpse into the tense McCain/Palin relationship to Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British ambassador to Washington. Sheinwald recently wrote a lengthy assessment of McCain in a telegram which winged its way across the Atlantic to Whitehall.</snip>


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2008/nov/05/joh...

[Lerkfish]

1. well, I lose, I said he'd turn on her in 3 days publicly.

someone else called it as 24 hours.

[BayjanDem]

11. What?

Palin was a problem????? When did this happen!

[Richard D]

2. I actually think McCain was glad he lost . . .

. . . imagine taking on the responsibility of having Palin possibly being president.

[Gman]

5. McCain knew she would be much more trouble than she was worth

which wasn't much at all.

[mwb970]

12. Why *did* he pick her? I will never understand that.

With so many superior candidates, many of them women, he chooses a shrill backwoods religious nut with no national experience. Obviously, I'm glad he did it, in retrospect, but why?

The moment I heard who he had picked for VP I said "We win." And win we did.

[Wednesdays]

21. I'm convinced he wasn't the one making the choice

I'm especially convinced after reading this OP. There are things going on behind the scenes. I think McCain is relieved he lost.

[tblue37]

34. Similarly, I don't think Al Gore was the one who made the choice of

Lieberman in 2000. Sometimes other powers in the party apply irresistible pressure to the candidate.

[Gman]

23. McCain was told he would lose because the base was not energized around hiim

and that this was the only way to energize the GOP base. Unfortunately for McCain, she turned everyone else off.

[BREMPRO]

28. on a whim, like the rest of his erratic, ad-hoc campaign.

I think he saw her as a soul mate, a "maverick" who took on special interests and was a financial hawk, and had strong grass roots support among the puke base. the support was true, but the rest was a political fiction that she and her RW supporters created, not the reality. the $200,000 spending spree on clothes proved that. The truth eventually came out and showed his decision making process to be fundamentally flawed.

[xxqqqzme]

30. According to the

Rolling Stone article, it was saurove who made the call about palin. He knew it would bring in the religious nut balls. He just over estimated their clout this time (as if they ever had any).

[superconnected]

36. Desperation. He was losing badly in the polls this summer

His strategists tried to make it a minority battle by pitting a woman against barack to tip the scale to their side. There are more women nationally then black men (women are half the population). They did it because they saw he had a difficult time against hillary.

Why palin - she was young and sexy. Mcains biggest weakness was being old and "Mcsame". They need to energize their campaign. She was supposed to appeal to women - and repeatedly tried pulling the female card to get them to join her in the last days. As it turned out most women couldn't stand her. She is something beer guzzling sports fans like - men. Most women have a natural adveristy toward killing animals(palin did it for sport), and they don't usually like other women into mens sports. She failed with the soccer moms badly even though she kept trying to be one under the more masculine(violent) "hockey mom" title. She failed with the feminists when her first move was to say she'd turn back roe vs. wade. She was also to appeal to the younger vote and failed. They went liberal.

MaCains campaign strategist must have been mostly men not to pick up on how women couldn't like or relate to palin. And they completely took for granted the intelligence of the media and the voters by thinking the inarticulate and intelligently-vacant palin could pass any intelligent scrutiny for being able to do the job. Their own staunch republican political critics took her apart - and they went after McCain for choosing someone so inept to be vice president.

[mwb970]

37. So it's obvious that "Country First" was a huge lie.

It sounds like it was "Me First" all the way for McCain. What a loser.

[yellowcanine]

38. Judging by where he kept looking when she was speechifying I would say it was her ass.

[LeftishBrit]

9. I actually think the defeat may have saved his life

I wouldn't have put it past some extreme religious nut to take a potshot at him so as to get God's Representative on Earth into the White House.

[WritersBlock]

29. Well, some of her supporters *were* praying for it.

Google "Palin" and "Imprecatory Prayer"

[ShortnFiery]

3. "The friendly canine eventually lets go."

[HopeHoops]

6. What a CUTE picture! Our Border Collie and Sheltie share a pool like that.

[B3Nut]

8. What a cute pibble!!

Nothing like a happy pibble smile!

Is that your furkid?

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[ehrnst]

14. What a sweetie!!!! I have fostered Pits and LOVE them.

On my dog Lucy's facebook page, she says, "I know pit bulls. I've played with pit bulls. And believe me, Ms Palin, you are no pit bull."

[Tansy_Gold]

15. Here's another

Grandson likes to share Chiquita's bed.... She doesn't mind!

[SpiralHawk]

4. "Gawd help America. She's even more of a republicon than me." - McSame

"I am about to fade into well-deserved obscurity. But poor America and Americans are now saddled with the curse of a shrill Republicon-christoFascist demagogue with the Wide Stance morals of an, ugh, republicon homelander, and lipstick schmeared all over her lying lips. Sheesh."

- McSame

[Gasping4Truth]

7. Seems like they're making plans for Nigel

FTA:

Senior figures on both sides of the House of Commons are wondering how long Sheinwald can last in Washington because he is unlikely to be able to carry out the great Jonathan Powell instruction that a British ambassador should "get up the arse of the White House and stay there".

[mwb970]

13. They only want what's best for him. /nt

[southernyankeebelle]

10. wow

What does that say about McCain's judgement? He would have put this AK hillbilly a dangerous person who has no idea what international law or US law means. Thank god the american people were smart enough to see through the viper not pit bull.

[Doctor_J]

16. Yes, he was willing to put the country in her hands

What happened to "Country First"?

[apnu]

17. Sadly here's the rub. McCain is done. I doubt he'll run for re-election after this.

His opinion after his concession speech last night matters to no one now.

We'll see Caribou Barbie again, the base found their new cheerleader.

[Joe Chi Minh]

22. I don't think so. That's been a shrinking base for a long time, and I don't think

it's going to get bigger any time soon.

[apnu]

24. Yes the base is shrinking, but slowly shrinking.

The fudies still have a lot of pull in the bible belt and out west.

What remains to be seen is if Obama and the Democrats can bring the Latino vote into the fold as a reliable base. They should, and I hope they do. That, alone, would make the Dems all but unbeatable for a long time. The Latino vote has only grown, by leaps and bounds, year after year.

[Joe Chi Minh]

25. Evenagelical males favoured Obama, which seemed to surprise the

talking head reporting it.

Not long before that, on CNN, El Schneider showed an impressive inverted pyramid almost entirely in red - which was supposed to reflect the Evangelical vote!

[BanTheGOP]

18. IT FELT SO GOOD, LET'S DO IT AGAIN IN 2010...

...when he has to defend his senate seat!

[liberalhistorian]

19. WTF? So he knew all along what

we knew from the beginning, yet continued to insist she was fully vetted, was not a rush pick, was not a pandering gimmick, was the most popular governor in the country, was fully prepared and knowledgeable to be president, had foreign policy experience due to AK's proximity to Russia, etc., etc.? And he STILL would have allowed her to be a very vulnerable heartbeat away from the presidency, knowing what a danger to the country she'd be? What a hypocritical, opportunistic, pandering snake motherfucker!

[Kalifornia.Kid]

20. Time to return Palin to the dog pound ...

[damntexdem]

26. He did it to himself -- has no one to blame but himself.

No matter what the pressure on him, he named her as his running mate.

[mzmolly]

27. Vetting ...

that is all.

[DeepModem Mom]

31. K&R

[Stellabella]

32. I guess the lipstick didn't soften the bite, McCain.

Too Bad. NOT.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

33. There is an untold story regarding the Palin selection

There is a strange connection between the bizarre selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, and the Hagee and Parsley episode last February (endorsement/repudiation). Not to besmirch their religious affliation, but it is strange that all three are Pentecostal. There is a bit of a schism between Pentecostals and Protestant fundamentalists that may not be widely realized. Each camp generally does not trust or accept the other. I thought it was odd at the time for McCain's people to bring a pair of Pentacostal ministers forward to endorse McCain instead of mainline fundamentalists more likely to appeal to the RR. My gut tells me there is an interesting story behind this. Is a senior member of the McCain campaign Pentecostal?

[eridani]

35. Wasn't Palin's whackjob church kicked out by the Pentecostals in 1949?

Too weird for normal glossolalia folks even back then. Sort of like being kicked out of a science fiction convention for being too weird and geeky even for other SF fen.