The Palin debate debacle: Former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt revealed that making Sarah Palin a viable vice presidential candidate was an uphill battle, and that Palin believed that her candidacy was “God’s Plan.”

In an interview with the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes,” last weekend, Steve Schmidt described Palin as “very calm and non-plussed” after McCain met with her at his Arizona ranch just before putting her on the Republican ticket.

Schmidt said he asked Palin about her serenity in the face of becoming “one of the most famous people in the world.” He quoted her as saying, “It’s God’s plan.”

Schmidt was interviewed by “60 Minutes” for a segment about the new book about the 2008 presidential race, “Game Change,” by John Heilemann of New York magazine and Mark Halperin of Time magazine.

According to Schmidt, Governor Palin was a total air-head who had no clue as to what led to the breakup of Korea or what caused the world wars or even the functions of the Federal Reserve.

Incompetent Sarah Palin

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Elsewhere, reports indicate that this GOP DingBat is set to join the shit-hole Fox News — to help spread her lies, while stuffing her crotch with hundreds of thousands of dollars, some brazenly gouged from her equally unschooled, mis-informed, decrepit and bigoted Republican faithful

“I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News (LIES),” Palin said in a statement posted on the network’s Web site. “It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news”. LOL!, … OO00ps ….er, you mean ….fair and balanced Racism, Race-Baiting, Bigotry, SMEARS, LIES & Innuendo

Fox News hired Palin despite her months of pushing false claims and bogus information, including the “Lie of the Year” that the Democrats’ health care bill includes “death panels.”

Welcome To Fox, Mrs. Palin. We’re Sure You’ll Fit Right In

Factually Challenged News Channel Hires Factually Challenged Palin — The New York Times reported that Fox News has hired Sarah Palin as a contributor who “will appear on the network’s programming on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal” and “will host an occasional series that will run on the network from time to time.” [ READ MORE ]

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Palin: A Hopeless Candidate For VP

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Palin as a Model For Success

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Inside The Book: Game Change

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New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd wonders: Is There a Real McCain? — John McCain is no longer the media’s delight and his party’s burr, bucking convention with infectious relish. The man used to be such a constructive independent that some of his Republican Senate colleagues called him a traitor. Now he’s such a predictable obstructionist that he’s in the just-say-no vanguard with the same conservatives who used to despise him.

After he lost to W. in a nasty primary battle in 2000, McCain delighted in poking at the new Republican president. But he was a trenchant critic of W.’s budget-busting tax cuts and other policies because his objections were consistent and honestly felt. (Or so we thought.)

McCain Hypocrisy Recovered From C-Span Archive

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Now he delights in attacking another man he ran against and lost to: a new Democratic president who had once hoped, based on McCain’s past positions, that his former Republican rival might be of help in such areas as the economy, national security, immigration and climate change.

With President Obama, McCain’s objections seem motivated more by vendetta than principle.

Part of his sharp turn to the right may be motivated by his primary challenge for a fifth term from J.D. Hayworth, a conservative, anti-immigration talk-show host and former Republican House member (who has also been anti-Times at times). [ READ MORE ]

Hell Will Freeze Over Thursday at 8 am.

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Confused Tea-Bagger Faxes Rant Backwards!

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South Carolina’s Senator Lindsay Graham Cites Blacks as State Disadvantage

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John Birch Society Asks For It

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From SLATE – By Timothy Noah: The GOP’s Fake Doctor Council — How Obamacare opponents scam physicians and the public — Can the Republican Party draft a doctor, entirely against his will and political inclination, into the Kill Obamacare movement? Well, it can try. Here is what happened to a high-school acquaintance of mine, a physician and medical school professor, who prefers that I not use his name. I’ll call him Fred. [ READ MORE ]

Senator James Inhofe — Lies and FEAR!

Senators Opposing Healthcare Had Procedures Done in Government Run Hospitals — McCain, McConnell, Blunt, Inhoffe

Public Option Fight

MEAN Republicans: No Compassion At Town Halls

MSNBC’s O’Donnell: Liberal House Dems “already compromised enormously” by giving up single payer, backing public option

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Huffingtonpost: The sniping between McCain staffers and Palin defenders has only gotten worse since Todd Purdum’s lengthy Vanity Fair article slamming Sarah Palin came out. Now Politico’s Jonathan Martin has come out with a piece in which the sniping has blown up into an all-out war inside the Republican party.

The piece is filled with on-the-record quotes from high-level and high-profile Republicans bashing each other, most prominently Bill Kristol going after McCain presidential campaign manager Steve Schmidt. Longtime McCain friend and adviser Mike Murphy went on “Hardball” tonight to discuss a segment the show billed as the GOP’s ‘Circular Firing Squad. [ READ MORE ]

Republicans Trade Insults Over lengthy Vanity Fair article slamming Sarah Palin came out. Now Politico’s Jonathan Martin Palin Article

Palin’s ‘rawtalent’

Smack-Talk: Palin Wants To Take on Obama on The Race-Track

The Sanford “CHRISTIAN” Hypocrisy

ANALYSIS: The Sarah Palin Chronicles Mask Deeper GOP Troubles — Whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has a national political future is but one of the debates swirling around in the Republican Party, which saw its minority status underscored this week with Democrat Al Franken’s Senate victory.

Recriminations Resume Over Former Vice Presidential Pick — Palin’s performance as McCain’s vice presidential running mate created a wide gulf in public opinion between those who found her fresh and appealing and those who found her shallow and unready. That she divided Democrats from Republicans was not the surprise. But as the campaign went on, and even more since, she has become a source of division within the Republican Party, at least among GOP strategists, insiders and talking heads. [ READ MORE ]

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Washington Monthly: REBRANDING…. It seems several leading Republicans have effectively given up hope that the GOP is the “party of ideas,” and want to start over.

Looking to rebrand a struggling Republican Party, a group of party heavyweights including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) are launching a new group that will hold town halls around the country and look to produce GOP ideas on issues like education and health care.

Republicans will announce today the creation of the “National Council for a New America,” a group led by congressional party leaders that includes Bush, McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as its “national panel of experts.”

I see. The “rebranding” effort will be led in part by conservative Republicans with the last names Bush and McCain. What could possibly go wrong?

Or, as Josh Marshall put it, “You know things are really humming along when your “rebranding” effort is led by your recently crushed presidential nominee and your discredited party leader’s brother.” — [ READ MORE ] [ MORE ON REBRANDING ] [ GOP's Big Names Try to Forge New Agenda ]

GOP’s new target: Hispanics?

Uncle Steele Is Rollin’ — Left Out in The COLD!

Shrinking G.O.P

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