Third party movement, Republican pest or Democratic gift? The first time I heard about their convention it was through an ad on a conservative blog. Christian Science Monitor writes about the possibilities:
.. But with an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll ranking a generic “Tea Party” as more popular than either Democrats or Republicans, and Palin herself rivaling the charming Mr. Obama in poll popularity, many experts see the Tea Party event as a potential milestone for a mounting, even transformational, force in US politics.
“[W]ith two wars, a continuing terror threat, huge federal deficits, and a major healthcare overhaul in the works, there is no shortage of disaffection out there … and that could prove to be political dynamite,” writes the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz. Against that backdrop, writes Mr. Kurtz, “The tea types can either blossom into a Perotista-style third-party movement or be subsumed to some degree by the GOP.”
Indeed, the Nashville event is not about chartering a new political party to represent conservative ideals like low taxes and states’ rights, but more about unifying to take on “Obama, Pelosi and Reid this year,” writes Judson Phillips, head of Tea Party Nation, one of many Tea Party groups and the lead sponsor of a convention that will feature conservative firebrands such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota. …
The current state of politics is not only national. Take a look at Florida’s Senate race, which has Crist in real trouble against Tea Party sanctioned Mark Rubio. A big write up in the New York Time‘s magazine section this Sunday marks a moment that takes the Tea Party from fringe group to mainstream dreamland. Rubio now in the spotlight, with Crist, who once embraced Obama, the guy on the outs.
Protesters have been mocking Crist at Tea Party rallies across the state. His opponents play (and replay) video of “The Hug,” a killer clip from last February in which the governor, while introducing President Obama in Fort Myers, happened to engage in a quickie man-embrace with the new commander-in-chief on the podium… When I mentioned “The Hug” to Crist, it was as close as I came to seeing him annoyed. “Obviously some people focus on it,” Crist said as we rode in the back of his S.U.V. after a Veterans Day event in Pembroke Pines.
It took less than a year for a hug from Pres. Obama to become the Lieberman equivalent kiss of political death on the right.
Not long ago, Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina, summed up the purity side this way: “I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.” And when I asked Rubio recently which current senator he most admires, he said DeMint.
Mr. DeMint might want to consider what they can actually get done with “30 Republicans in the Senate.”
As for Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, Jon Meacham’s Newsweek covers (see here), from the old one pictured here with the caption “She’s One of the Folks (And that’s the problem),” continue the drumbeat that implies Palin isn’t to be taken seriously. Well, guess what, it’s not up to Mr. Meacham to decide, but he could funnel us all into a rut. As I’ve been writing about since the 2008 presidential election ended, the more traditional and new media targets Palin dismissively, unfairly, using Beltway elitism, misogyny or double standard as the angle, the less likely we are to get an honest airing of just what she has learned since she was put on McCain’s veep ticket, and how she would govern, with people rallying around her personality, which is never good for politics. Because like it or not Palin is going to get another chance. When I ask people around the Virginia area about Palin not being a serious contender their response is similar: She was a governor, so she can’t be stupid; with the next phrase about Obama being, well, let’s just say even this far out it’s doubtful he’ll take Virginia in 2012. Still, Palin has yet to undo her Tina Fey persona that stuck with many. She simply cannot win nationally using the Jim DeMint theory of “30.” On the other hand, no one should ignore the emotional connection she has with her supporters, which is a deadly effective component, depth of qualifications still in question or not. The Democratic Party already releasing at least one preemptive oppo memo.
A lot of people across the political spectrum have been talking about a third political party, some for many years. I just don’t think the Tea Party is what they had in mind. However, unlike the nebulous “independents,” which have no ideological through line, structure or driving dream, the Tea Party does. It’s just not very inclusive.
But this newly formed political party has found their darling this year. And for the first time in history a new political wing is not being represented by a man. The right would call that progress. The left will have to decide if it’s a gift or nightmare.
Who can say if this is good for Democrats or Republicans, what can be said is, that its bad for this country. We have seen this before, and it never ends good for said country. When extremist movements gain the mainstream in the political landscape, its a slippery slide into fascism, and totalitarianism.
This is a real danger to everything this country was founded on. People need to pick up a history book and read what happened in countries like, Germany when an extremist party became a legitimate mainstream party. Don’t think it can’t happen here.
Bad for the country? I don’t think so. Palin’s new-found popularity on the right is not unlike Obama’s on the left, feeding on a “throw the bums out” reaction to business as usual in Washington. Change!! As TM writes, we need to know where she stands.
Are Americans unhappy with the status quo? You betcha, many are. Current poll data:
Obama: Approve 50, Disapprove 46
Congress: Approve 27, Disapprove 66
Health Care Plan: For 39, Against 51
Generic Congressional Vote: Rep 43, Dem 41
Is it a good thing for a vivacious woman with strong positions to shake up the dull gray suit world? (Now where have I encountered that before.) What’s bad for the country is what we’ve presently got.
Marco Rubio…..more about him in a minute. Palin and her Tea-Bagging Party of nut-job, Neanderthal, all white, racists are a gift to the body politic. No longer will we have to send out the FBI and the CIA at great expense to find out where all the crazies are located. We need only watch the video of the Tea Party Convention. Then use the lists of names that the event generates to pinpoint where the whacko’s live and who they gather with. The Tea Party Convention is a public service to law enforcement I tell you. Thank you John McCain for trying to blow up the bush family’s Republican Party. Now for Marco Rubio. This clown is a bush family ‘friend’. The Bush mafia organization asked Mel Martinez to step aside so that Marco could take the reins of their Florida operation. The guy in charge of Florida’s GOP quit on Monday because he was tired of being strongarmed by the Bush group. He was Crist’s guy and the Bush people wanted a Rubio guy to head the Florida GOP. What’s going on in Florida is less about the Tea-baggers than it is about who’s going to take over the rackets and the political machinery now that Santo Trafficante’s group is gone for good. Peace
Angels81: I agree with you that people should read history in order to inform themselves. I’ve done a lot of reading over the past few years of both German and currently, Russian history. However, I think you are engaging in political demogoguery by demonizing the Tea Party movement as “fascist” or “totalitarian” or “extremist.” It’s intellectually dishonest to characterize dissent from government as “bad for this country.” The fact is, we have been on a “slippery slide into fascism and totalitarianism” for some time in this country, led by mainstream political parties.
I read that Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer thinks the government should automatically register people to vote when they sign up for any government program. Government will now register people to vote? Did anyone notice that it’s an infringement of my constitutional First amendment Rights for the government to do such a thing? Has anyone rejected the thousands of ways–both minor and major–that the government has stolen our Constitutional rights, abrogated our international treaties, and more every single day?
I no longer subscribe to any political party, am not affiliated with any political movement, and am not a member of any religious organization, preferring to remain independent, and a free thinker, contrarian in my personal politics, and determined to resist propaganda from all corners So, I have to reject your propaganda as well Angel81.
Thanks Taylor, for such a well-presented, objective look at what’s happening out there. I think your reaction strikes just the right tone–political observers should be wary of letting their own ideology blind them to the meaning of events, certainly the original “tea party” participants were considered “extremist” in their own day. Thank God, they prevailed.
So Don, tell us what Palin stands for? What solutions does she have to fix this country? Hell, she couldn’t even finish her term as Governor, she quit to go make money.
Tell me what the tea bagging movement with their extreme rhetoric and their hateful narrow mindedness is going to bring to this country?
angels81, you have a basic misunderstanding of history and how it operates. Follow the money. Do not follow public opinion. The only one’s who win in wars are the bankers and arms manufacturers and merchants. Those that fight and die in them are the losers every time. Think of a Vegas casino. The operators (winners) make huge profits and the players (losers) go on welfare. Follow the money. Peace
For Palin to shake up the establishment Republicans is good thing. They are going to have to stop and think about conservative principles. I only wish we had such a person on the left. A true liberal popuilist who could put the fear of god in our elite.
I agree with Noogon that we have been on a slippery slope for quite awhile. I have called it velvet facism. Having gone to a Tea Party dominated townhall this last summer I understand angels fear. The people I saw were hateful,angry and howled in support of outsized CEO pay. What makes them scary to me is their willingness to accept pure fiction as fact.
populist
angels81,
We’re in the process of finding out what Palin stands for — that’s the purpose of political campaigns. The point is that, as of now, she shouldn’t be dismissed, just as that young senator (who was never a governor) shouldn’t have been dismissed five years ago. Do you have a problem with democracy?
The Tea Party has expressed objections to the expanded involvement of Washington in health care, the car business, the banks generally and the home loan industry specifically. They are in the early stages of policy development. From their website: “Since Tea Party Patriots is a grassroots, bottom up organization, as we develop a long range vision, we want your input. As we have said many times, you are the heart and soul of the Tea Party Patriots. Our long range vision must be developed with your ideas and vision in mind To that end, please fill out this Three for Tea Survey.”
http://www.teapartypatriots.org/
LL, lots of Progressives accept pure fiction as fact as well. Case in point: all those people who believe that Hillary has their best interests at heart. Baaaaa, Baaaa. Peace
Don Bacon, Palin is a certifiable crackpot. And the Tea Party people are angry, crazed, racists. That is all. Peace
Imhop you are like an annoying little brother.Always tweaking.
Imhotep,
Then, by your reasoning, Alaskans elected a “certifiable crackpot” as governor and a party of “angry, crazed, racists” is more popular than either Democrats or Republicans. I suppose you think the voters are at fault?
Don Bacon~ I get what you are saying. A married couple who are great friends of mine are involved in the St. Louis Tea party and subscribers to the Weeklty Standard. These people are salt of the earth community leaders who have done more for my little community than anyone I know.They are well educated and well traveled.They didn’t attend the townhalls because they knew they would be uncivilized. We talk politics all the time and often come to agreement about what we dislike about how things are in our political establishment.We differ of course on the solutions.I often leave their house thinking there has to be some way to come together to beat back the corporate elite.
The problem with many liberals is that they are illiberal.
So the story line is a group of people – Tea Party folks – have gone off and fully embraced – in fact fallen head over heels – for a politician they know little about. Why should anyone be surprised that the right can go bonkers over looks and personality?
Going bonkers over looks and personality is hardly peculiar to the right.
This is going to be an interesting year indeed…
angels81 says:
So Don, tell us what Palin stands for?
Well at the moment it is more clear to me what she and the tea party movement stand for than what the democrats stand for. One thing that the election of Obama showed us (and should have shown our elected reps) is that the status quo won’t do. Last year we elected a young black president whose election was considered a long shot because he promised change, he had captured the spirit of the moment.
He looked like an outsider, someone who had not been groomed by Washington, who was not at the head of the democratic party, who did not have the long-established connections, who was not a rain-maker in the party establishment, who was actually running against the party establishment and because of these weaknesses (or strenghts depending) who would have no other choice than to rely on the grass root and popular movement that put him in power. Why Obama chose to distance himself from the populism of his campaign is a real mystery.
It is even more surprising because he is not even good at playing the Washington game. His influence was not developed through long-standing personal or professional relationship with politicians in Washinton (across party lines) like the McCains of this world or through a carefully maintained network like the Clintons. Therefore he is not that effective at getting them around his table. Instead of relying on us he is relying on the Rahms and the Geithners who he feels have direct access to the political and business contacts “elites”, and that is not working too well. Last year, voters facing an uncertain future wanted to feel that they would be at the centre of policies for once as opposed to an after thought.
Smart Sarah is reading the mood of the moment well and will use populism, since the dems feel it is beneath them. I personally find her boring and often confused and confusing in her thinking and the expression of her thinking. But she still manages to be unambiguous in what she stands for: she clearly is the anti-Obama because that is what her supporters and her “faith” require, and she is very uncompromising in this stance. I dont agree with anything she says and often wonder if she really believes some of the nonsense she says. Also as the mum of two mixed race girls I cannot agree with her views of America and I find the prejudice/racism of the tea-party crowd disgusting.
BUT if fear of what she stands for can shake things up, then pervesely I sort of welcome it. The status quo is taking us nowhere.
djjl…you mean as the left just did?
Just caught up on the previous posts. What you said Lake Lady.
Noogan
No intent to argue but I’m not following how automatically registering a citizen to vote (who has chosen to participate in a government program) is taking away your constitutional rights. The suggestion, as I read your comments, is to be certain the individual has the ability to exercise their vote – not that they have to vote or how they vote. It seems the governments of states have been working to place impediments to individuals voting – kind of seems good that some are wanting to allow citizens to vote.
Don Bacon and Lake Lady
Guess I was being too subtle – try it this way:
“djjl says:
07 January 2010 at 12:15 pm
So the story line is a group of people – Tea Party folks – have gone off and fully embraced – in fact fallen head over heels – for a politician they know little about. Why should anyone be surprised that the right can go bonkers over looks and personality?” The left certainly has shown how that can work to the benefit of a charming, attractive, and gifted political craftsman. The left calls their charmer – Mr President.
Let’s pray that their is more than charm and personality in this Mr President – so far not seeing much in the way of principled leadership on behalf of Main Street America.
Lake Lady
Love your avatar. You are in Mo aren’t you?
Don Bacon
Where are you?
Sarah Palin: She appears an effable former beauty queen 21st Century Alma Gantry. She laughs at conservatives and liberals out of public view.
Join the Liberal Democratic Party of the United States of America http://www.democratz.org
Hey, a little good news today:
‘A new poll by Public Policy Polling has the Independent senator losing support in his home state, not just among Democrats but among independents and even Republicans as well.
More than 80 percent (81 percent) of Democrats now say they disapprove of the job Lieberman is doing with only 14 percent approving. Among Republicans, 48 percent disapprove of the senator with just 39 approving. And among independents, 61 percent disapprove of Lieberman’s antics with just 32 percent approving.
“It all adds up to a 25% approval rating with 67% of his constituents giving him bad marks,” the study concludes. “Barack Obama’s approval rating with Connecticut Republicans is higher than Lieberman’s with the state’s Democrats.”‘
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/07/liebermans-approval-ratin_n_414666.html
Thanks djjl yes, I’m about 45 minutes from St. Louis in a rural county. Thanks on the gravatar…that is what my view looks like at sunset.
Isis..did you mean the part about a liberal populist? I can’t think of one other than Howard Dean.He has an insurgent’s soul I think. I remember reading that it was expected in his family that he work on Wall Street and he hid the fact from his parents that he was attending medical school for a while.That tells me something of his character.
I wonder.
How many women participating in this discussion could vote for Palin because they’d like to see a female President, in spite of her views?
Second, what % of PROGRESSIVE female voters do you think could vote for her JUST to see a woman in the WH?
My brother who voted for Liberman and my sister-in law who voted for the liberal are both completely sick of him.
Obama seems to me a perfect fit for CT. Socially liberal and economically establishment.
How many affable former beauty queens who garner the female vote just because she’s female would fit on the head of a pin?
Well, if you’re talking about readers, listeners over time, as well as other women who have depended on me over the last 15 years for counsel and advice, you’ve got me & Palin sitting on a pin!
Couldn’t resist, DB.
No way,no how,never,not ever!!! I would love to see a competent woman as president and I mourn the fact that the country lost it’s chance this time around but I would never vote based on gender or race or sexual orientation.
It is policy for me. I have a liberal world view and economic view. I think the Europeans have figured out in their own individual ways a better form of government and a better lifestyle both in their approach to their own people and to the planet. Maybe they have had the historical experiences that puts them ahead of us.
Ramsgate
As a woman participating in this discussion – I WOULD NEVER VOTE FOR ANY WOMAN JUST TO SEE A WOMAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. The Presidency is far too important!!!!
Second, I would think the percentage of Progressive female voters who would vote for Palin “JUST to see a woman in the WH” would be zero to negligible. Progressive female voters aren’t ignorant and unprincipled -otherwise they wouldn’t be Progressive female voters.
The Democratic party has gotten taken over by Libertarians, socially liberal and fically conservative.
The anti choice wing of our party took advantage of having to pass a health care bill in both houses.
I hope the independent voters realize that Sarah Palin has a fake populist effort underway and see that she laughs at those conservative leading independents in private as she appers one of the Republican corporate elite who plays a Republican rabble leader in public.
Where can progressives go? For legislative purposes Join the Liberal Democratic Party of the United States of America http://www.democratz.org
Ramsgate, I think you will find very few progressive women or men for that matter who would vote for Palin because she is a women. Most progressives I know vote on issues and what they think is good for the country and family.
I read The Confluence a so called PUMA site because they have some very smart women who write over there.One who teaches economics at Tulane is whip smart and has helped me understand what’s happening economically. I can’t speak for any of them but just from my reading I would venture to say that very, very few of them would vote for Palin. They are mostly disaffected liberals.
Don says,”We’re in the process of finding out what Palin stands for”. Shouldn’t we know by now? She was a governor, and a VP candidate who would have been one step away for the red button, and we are still in the process of knowing what she stands for? I think a lot of us already know what this grifter of a women stands for…She stands for Palin, and how much she can pocket before the gravy train comes to an end.
My worry is that elected Dems are going to take the wrong lesson from the polls and the turmoil and move further to the right. None of them have been able to articulate that the socialist ranting against Obama is so off the mark that it would be funny if it was not so sad.
Noogan says:
07 January 2010 at 11:16 am
Thanks and you betcha.
Lake lady, yes I meant the part about the liberal populist event though I think (based on your comments) that I am less “ideological” than you may be so we may not be giving exactly the same meaning to the word. Candidate Obama fit this label during his campaign just fine in my opinion, I saw him as the perfet “pragmatic populist”, who would not get stuck into ideolgical construct but will pick the best idea from the right and the left to do what is right for the people and in the process involve the people. Unfortunately, while the ideological part is true, he is not necessarily picking the best idea, nor those that are in the best interest of the people or involving the people. Thus my current frustrations…
angels have you read the ‘Vanity Fair’ interview with Levi(the ex boyfriend of Bristol) a few months back? I really don’t respect the writer of the article,Todd Purdom is world class smearer. However,it seemed like some truth came from Levi.He paints her as self involved,not too interested in her husband or her kids and disinterested in learning. I understand that he is pissed and trying to capitalize on his 15 minutes but I think he is too unsophisticated to disemble much.
Populism is also about connecting with the people and having the abilty to generate loyalty. Again candidate Obama had that, but has growm more remote since his election. Even though Dean is really smart, I am not sure he has that ability. But let us see…. then again I am not yet at a stage where I am hoping for a challenger to Obama, I am still “hopeful”?
Isis~ You are correct I am more idealogical than you are. I really believe that there are two completely different world views on the right and the left. I think it would be very hard in the current climate to come up with good policy that combined the two. Now back when we had moderate Republicans it might have been more possible but not now.
Speaking for myself, my particular interest is anti-war. I have devoted considerable time and some funds to it for six years, with little to show for it. There seems to be no Dem/Repub divide on the subject.
If this Tea Party anti-federal movement now a-building moves in an anti-war direction then it will be a good thing. If it doesn’t then I have little interest in it.
So I try to be more concerned with issues than with appearance and personality, at least in politics. Privately it’s the opposite. At age 72 I’m not immune to the charms of affable former beauty queens. Some things never change.
Lake Lady, you are right about the two sides working together in the climate that this country is in. We now are starting to see a splinter in the republican party, were we may end up with a right wing party and a extreme right wing party. We also saw were Obama brought all the sides in the democratic party together, both left and moderate and took the White House. Now we are seeing that start to splinter as one side feels betrayed.
History has showed us, that when the mainstream politic stops working, it creates a void for the extremists to move in and take control. I think America right now sits on the razors edge, and we could lose everything we hold dear.
LL, actually we are not that far apart. The goal is social justice and economic prosperity without which there can be no social justice, but the means to get to these goal are not clear cut (right or left ideas), it is a difficult balance and also needs to be adapted to changing times.
For example the health care debate. At the moment the country’s public finances are scary, yet most progressives insist on the public option or even better single options without I think giving enough consideration to the cost. I have worked in France, Spain, Germany and the UK. It is true that health care in France and Germany is very good. But then again taxes to fund the system would be considered unacceptable by most americans. Despite the taxes, the cost of health care is a huge burden . In France they refer to it as an expanding “black hole” to which politicians have no answer. In the UK health care was affordable, free in many aspects, but (in my opinion) not very good quality with long waiting list for the most simple surgical treatments. The cost of NHS is a major campaign issue this year.
Unfortunately the current debate in the US on the cost of health care is dishonest and obscured by the left and the right focussing on ideology rather than what is the best considereing the situation of the economy. Then again, it is difficult for Obama to have much credibility with progressives when talking about saving cost on health care when he is actually spending money in an unecessary war.
I meant single payer
Isis
I have a disagreement about populism and Obama. Populism is about believing in the wisdom, rights, and virtues of the common people, populism is about egalatarianism, populism from the dictionary is: “A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite.”
People saw in Obama what they wanted. Obama is not and was not a populist. He is and was an elitist.
Obama:”So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
djjl says:
07 January 2010 at 12:47 pm
“Second, I would think the percentage of Progressive female voters who would vote for Palin “JUST to see a woman in the WH” would be zero to negligible. Progressive female voters aren’t ignorant and unprincipled -otherwise they wouldn’t be Progressive female voters.”
Djji, The above is interesting. During the last Presidential campaign, I watches female friends who disliked HRC with such passion it was difficult to mention her name without starting an argument. There came a point in the campaign when Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann really began to go nuts on her. Then it appeared that all of MSNBC had it in for her. And whaddyaknow, ever so slowly things began to turn.
Suddenly these women were rooting for Hillary. All of them weren’t converted but their passions cooled and I believe at least two of them voted for her. The other three won’t discuss it.
Now I admit Palin is a whole different kettle of fish. What did she say about dead fish going with the flow?
Obama was POPULAR – not a populist.
angels81 says:
07 January 2010 at 12:58 pm
Exactly. Precisely.
Ramsgate
My guess is your friends saw the sexism and misogyny for what it was. My guess is they were also old enough to have lived the good old boy network experience in their real lives and work opportunities.
It’s one thing to have swallowed the media caricature of Clinton for a time – it’s quite another to recognize the blatant dishonesty, sexism and misogyny with one’s own eyes and ears.
We are also still in the process of determining what President Obama stands for – and it doesn’t appear much like what he was selling on the campaign trail.
I don’t expect there to be ever any POTUS who’s every decision I would agree – but I’d like to see President Obama REALLY STAND for something meaningful to Main Street Americans…..the ones bailing out Wall Street and dying on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan.
angels81 says:
07 January 2010 at 12:58 pm
As veep, it was never about what she stood for and never is as #2. Being governor is representative of only what is in Alaskans best interest, which given the small, remote nature of the state, as well as how different it is because of both, it says little about what she’d do nationally. Does anyone actually believe Palin could get away with aerial slaughter of wolves as president? The spotlight changes people, sometimes for the better, though that remains to be seen.
djjl says:
07 January 2010 at 1:52 pm
I wait with you. I fear we wait in vain.
This man has no passion & passion comes from conviction. And to have conviction one has to stand for something.
Fewer and fewer people are no longer buying his act. This is leadership by teleprompter.
He thinks all he has to do is go on 60 minutes and talk tough about bankers, but when he faces them he’s like a pussycat; or to talk tough about lapses in security at the WH yet he doesn’t have the guts to fire anyone. The only people he dares confront are those who support him, and those he feels need him. As you said, the weakest.
This is a character problem.
Who will write “The Marketing, Packaging, and Sale of the Presidency 2008?”
Didn’t Plouffe already do that?
LOL, Taylor. I meant the equivalent of Joe McGinnis and “The Selling of the Presidency.”
It’s kind of interesting to drop in on the formerly “all things Obama” sites – they don’t have much to talk about in the last weeks.
I’ve enjoyed the conversation; but I gotta go get some stuff to put out for the birds while we go through our deep freeze.
Hey people I did not write AFFABLE. I wrote EFFABLE.
A sound word for the letter F which begins the word F**KABLE.
That’s what excites the Republican rabble. The key to destoy her power will come from passive agressive treatment of her, praise her and criticize her in one paragraph.
She looks pretty but she will lead to the ruin of this country.
McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt (right) said Palin’s opening line, “Hey, can I call you Joe,” was suggested after she repeatedly got his name wrong in practice sessions, referring to him as “O’Biden.”
He said he had been warned by a campaign staffer that Palin was doing very poorly in her preparation.
“He told us the debate was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions. … She was not focused … not engaged,” Schmidt told [Anderson] Cooper. “She was not really participating in the prep.”
Among other revelations:
…when the president-elect called [Hillary Clinton] a second time to persuade her to be his secretary of state, after being turned down the first time, Clinton told him there was a problem.
“At that point she says, ‘There’s one last thing that’s a problem, which is my husband,” Heilemann said. “‘You’ve seen what this is like; it will be a circus if I take this job.’”
The interview about the book airs Sunday on “60 Minutes.”
Oh, sorry _ forgot the link. The info is from the new book “Game Change”:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31249.html