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McCain: Sarah Palin was “better candidate” than Romney, others

McCain: Sarah Palin was “better candidate” than Romney, others

Senator John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his VP in 2008 because she was a “better candidate” than Romney, Pawlenty, or any of the others under consideration.

McCain made the remarks Tuesday after being asked if Mitt Romney’s tax returns were the cause of him choosing Sarah Palin:

“Of course not,” McCain told POLITICO when asked if the contents of Romney’s tax returns disqualified him from the selection process. “I don’t know what depths these people won’t reach. Obviously, it’s just outrageous. That’s just outrageous. It shows the – it’s so disgraceful for them to allege something that they have absolutely no knowledge of.”

Asked why he chose not to go with Romney, McCain said: “Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate. Why did we not take [Tim] Pawlenty, why did we not take any of the other 10 other people. Why didn’t I? Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others. … Come on, why? That’s a stupid question.”

It’s refreshing to hear McCain defend Palin, especially during an election cycle where retrenching to establishment choices seems to be the only plan the GOP has put “forward.”

H/T Voter Mom

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Comments

“Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others.”

Uhh, Senator, it’s just to bad your campaign managers and advisers didn’t feel that way.

theduchessofkitty | July 17, 2012 at 3:52 pm

If she was the “better candidate”, then why did the GOP pretty much stabbed her in the back when she was probably the decisive factor in the Tea Party driving out to pasture the Socialist “Democrats” en masse in 2010?

Someone, somewhere else said it right, “Republicans, They Thirst For Death.”

Senator, Did you also know the RNC has NOT yet invited Sarah to the Tampa Convention? Maybe you’d like to rectify that…

And she is STILL a better candidate than Romney, Pawlenty, or any of the others under consideration. I wish Sarah had run this year.

    From your lips to God’s ears…

    PhillyGuy in reply to donb. | July 17, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    Well she’s better now than she was back then. Her ability to distill issues down to succinct talking points is much sharper. She handles the media better. And, having had the opportunity to see her up close, she is one great looking woman!

    Sorry, just had to throw that in.

      Sarah is incredible. Met her in Iowa. Television does not do her justice – she is a radiant and energetic. Some of that gets through on television, but to meet her in person is another thing entirely.

        PhillyGuy in reply to McCoy2k. | July 17, 2012 at 5:24 pm

        She shook my hand, looked directly at me and asked for my vote in the nicest way possible. If I only could have gotten McCain off the ticket. 🙂

      RefudiateObama2012 in reply to PhillyGuy. | July 17, 2012 at 7:31 pm

      The big difference is that since the 2008 election, we hear what Palin thinks, not what her running mate thinks. Because she has always been a straight shooter, she had difficulty in peddling what McCain was selling. In her words, she is unshackled. She says what she believes. She doesn’t let political expedience get in the way when she thinks something needs to be said.

I’m sorry, but McCain and his stupid daughter should just shut up. I’m SO sick of this man.
I love my Sarah, but John McCain GO AWAY.

Frank Scarn | July 17, 2012 at 4:29 pm

Don’t stop there, Loser-for-a-candidate-that-you-were, Mr. McCain. Sarah Palin was a damn better candidate than you ever were.

And she’s more genuine.

I consider you to have been so pathetic, Mr. McCain, that I have begun to fear that Romney, unless he develops a set, might become like you.

McCain isn’t stupid. He knew the effect this statement will have because he knows how the media thinks about Palin. This was deliberate.

    There are only few things I admire Senator McCain for anymore. Of the things I do admire are his service to country, his sacrifices for the USA while a POW, and his selection of Sarah Palin for his running mate.

    Romney needs to understand what McCain knows, that Sarah Palin remains to be (to take a phrase from literature) The Once and future President. She is either our next George Washington, or out next Abraham Lincoln (or Ronald Reagan).

Shorter John McCain: Sarah Palin > Willard “Mitt” Romney.

Romney is the guy who lost to McCain and McCain lost to obama! Without Sarah Palin at the helm obama gets a 2nd term.
Sarah make roadkill out of romney

    theduchessofkitty in reply to Mike. | July 17, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    “Sarah make roadkill out of romney The One.”

    Fixed it for ya.

    HarrietHT in reply to Mike. | July 17, 2012 at 5:50 pm

    Utter and complete nonsense. Go to rightscoop.com and watch Romney’s speech today in PA. You’ll be singing a different tune. Mark my words.
    Sarah is a lightweight, granted with much needed boldness, but a lightweight nevertheless. Perhaps in time she may develop the depth and breadth this generation hungers for; her boldness would then have real BITE.

      Juba Doobai! in reply to HarrietHT. | July 17, 2012 at 8:58 pm

      You Robots really kill me. Your candidate has not opened lines of communication to Conservatives. Since 2008, his people have been relentlessly trashing our standard bearer, who was a more effective mayor and governor than he with a brilliant record of achievement. Governor Palin’s record is public knowledge, yet here you come, spewing uninformed filth and doing your best to further alienate those in hr corner. You all are as tin eared as Romney himself.

What’s kind of incredible is that Steve Schmidt, the guy who said he recommended Palin (a move he now says he regrets) and then torpedoed her (and the McCain campaign) every chance he gets, is now considered a campaign expert. I keep seeing his name in the MSM, as if he has some valuable insight. Well he does know how to undermine a campaign from the inside.

I think what really bugs Schmidt is that Sarah Palin quickly became the genie that couldn’t be put back in the bottle. From the moment her name was announced, Schmidt lost control of that campaign. Even McCain was just along for the ride. Pro or con, Palin drove that campaign. It’s anybody’s guess what it would have been like without her.

Here’s the thing: I don’t trust anything that comes out of the mouth of John McCain, my AZ senator.

Tom Tancredo stated that during a two-person elevator ride with JM during the 2007 CIR attack on America’s sovereignty (my reading, not Tancredo’s) that JM cursed, fumed, and swore at Tom when Tom told John he would not support John’s, Kennedy’s and Bush’s bill.

There is one reason and one reason only for JM to push Palin to the fore over Romney: and that is because in Palin he has someone whose chit he can call in.

    MAB in reply to HarrietHT. | July 17, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    HarrietHT, I wouldn’t worry too much about the “chit” being called in. She already paid whatever she felt she owed him when she campaigned for him last time. The debt has been paid.

Phillep Harding | July 17, 2012 at 7:01 pm

Sarah was, at a personal level, the least unqualified for the job of Pres. at the time.

Anyone who gets in office needs a cadre or machine supporting, and she did not have one, but she was not running for Pres. Being VP would have given her time and contacts to build what she needed.

McCain did not have a team behind him, either. How many of his election team do we now know actually supported Obama?

I wonder if we will ever know why Sarah didn’t run.There is all kind of speculation out there but none of it rings true.Any how I’m going to write her in, in Nov.

donsmith7777 | July 17, 2012 at 9:29 pm

He chose the scatter-brained, illiterate Alaskan hillbilly with a pregnant teenage daughter, instead of this very rich and successful man – because SHE was a better candidate.

    BannedbytheGuardian in reply to donsmith7777. | July 18, 2012 at 6:28 am

    Hillbillies do not inhabit the coast .

    Thats the thing about pregnancy – always a bit tough & sometimes a bit inconvenient.. However 4 years later a very healthy gorgeous blonde little boy.

    It is more natural to have a first baby at 18 than 40 . There are plenty of American couples who would dream of such a child.

    Spoken like a true Mitt-Romney-supporting jerk.

    Lots of luck getting people to vote for your guy with that attitude.

    Who’s the dumb hillbilly?

[…] John McCain is making news for the second day in a row. Yesterday, he broke character and gave Sarah Palin a sort of backhanded compliment. […]