Lawrence Eagleburger, who served as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and whose endorsement is often trumpeted by McCain, said on Thursday that the Alaska governor is not only unprepared to take over the job on a moment's notice but, even after some time in office, would only amount to an "adequate" commander in chief.
"And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested," he added for good measure -- referring both to Palin's policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office. (Listen to audio below.)
The remarks took place during an interview on National Public Radio that was, ironically, billed as "making the case" for a McCain presidency. Asked by the host whether Palin could step in during a time of crisis, Eagleburger reverted to sarcasm before leveling the harsh blow.
"It is a very good question," he said, pausing a few seconds, then adding with a chuckle: "I'm being facetious here. Look, of course not."
Oof, that's gotta hurt.
Eagleburger made the remarks on the NPR show Talk of the Nation, which can be heard in its entirety here. HuffPost also has the relevant excerpts here.
Take note that Eagleburger is one of the five former secretaries of state that Johnah McPalin proudly boasted to be supporters of their ticket, after the scathing critique they received from Colin Powell when the latter endorsed Obama for President.
Ironically, Eagleburger was invited to the program for a segment called "Make The Case" to articulate, based on foreign and domestic policy credentials, why McCain is the right choice. He made the case alright, on why NO one in his right mind should vote for McCain.
Expect Eagleburger to be "Carly Fiorina-ed" in 3, 2, 1...
It was really a dies horribilis for Palin. First, the New York Times reported this:
All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.
And in a possible indication that the choice of Ms. Palin has hurt Mr. McCain’s image, voters said they had much more confidence in Mr. Obama to pick qualified people for his administration than they did in Mr. McCain.
In addition the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Obama might win in a record-breaking landslide in California, my home state, in large part because of Palin:
The choice of Palin as McCain's vice president has been viewed through an "extremely partisan" lens, said DiCamillo.
While Republicans view Palin positively by 74-19 percent, Democrats and nonpartisans have a very negative image of her; Democrats hold a 75-15 percent unfavorable-favorable rating of Palin, and nonpartisans also have a 65-20 percent negative assessment of her, the poll showed.
The Palin pick "really did nothing to broaden the McCain support levels among his own base," said DiCamillo, who said that Democratic and independent voters tended to see it as a choice that "reflected poorly on his judgment."
No question, Palin is now officially a drag on the GOP ticket.
Of course, McCain's ambition and total disregard for the country that he hypocritically vowed to put first is responsible for this catastrofrak of a pick. It doesn't matter that his operatives Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis pushed him to choose Palin at the urging of hacks like Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, who reacted to Palin like squealing fanboys after they met her on one of those conservative cruises to Alaska. It was McCain's decision to make and what a farce of a decision it was.
I almost felt sorry for Palin until I remembered that she is equally to blame for this. She could have said no. She's profoundly out of her depth and she knows it, but like her running mate, ambition and arrogance took precedence over what's best for the country.
I would love for us to have more than two parties to choose from every four years, but the reality is we only have two viable ones. That Johnah McPalin ended up being one of them is an obscenity for which the GOP deserves our eternal scorn and our total repudiation on Tuesday.
