Posted on 04/24/2010 3:16:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I had never met Steve Schmidt and only knew him through the media. When I found myself seated at the former McCain campaign manager's table at a Washington dinner hosted by The Week magazine, it was like a flashback to the 2008 campaign. Schmidt is instantly recognizable with his trademark shaved head, his bulldog physique, and the restless intensity that marks him as a political operative of the first order.
He had spent 10 weeks trying to mold Sarah Palin into a plausible national candidate, and when the campaign ended, he assessed her shortcomings, as she did his, in what turned into a volley of unusually blunt words. "You paid a price for all that candor," I suggested across the table. "Not really," he scoffed with a laugh, explaining that he lives and works in northern California, which offers geographic and cultural distance from the battles that animate Washington politics.
He was in town Tuesday evening to give his perspective on a bipartisan panel titled "Battle for the Soul of a Party," which is what passes for entertainment at ground zero of the partisan divide. Before he took the stage, he said his problem with Palin had to do with her saying things that are untrue, which caused problems for the campaign. It's a practice you could say she has since perfected with the "death panels" of last summer, and continues today with an assertion made in Louisville, Ky., last week that the Founding Fathers really didn't want separation of church and state.
Schmidt gives Palin her due as a political talent. He has said that without her on the ticket, McCain's margin of defeat would have been even greater.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Eleanor Clift?
Is that nasty old Clinton Knee Pad Ho wanna-be still writing?
Piece of Schmidt PING!
I cast my lot w palin over the rino mccains grahams snowes romneys every day of the week.
Steve Schmidt is also connected to the Failed Governor Shriver of California. Failure follows this RINO, WHy he still has a Job is beyond me, every candidate he has ever worked for turned out to ba a FAILURE and a RINO, purge him from politics forever.
The only job Schmidt is qualified to do is work at McDonalds and ask “Do you want fries with that?”
Apparently its common knowldge that Slick did herearly in her career. She has been his pet ever since.I bet he beat her around some.She strikes me as a bit of a masochist.
“he said his problem with Palin had to do with her saying things that are untrue”
Obviously the boy is as demented as he looks. Sounds like the perfect RINO campaign manager.
You know, the way this stuff just doesn’t end, it seems to me that President Sarah Palin is a go. I’m wondering if Cheney would help her out, or Petraeus?
McCain’s was the worst. Campaign. Ever.
Steve Schmidt’s handling of it made Bob Dole look like a genius.
I’m going to pull a Laz and not read Elea-manure’s column.
I’ll just comment that she is a jealous, ugly and nasty bitch.
“Before he took the stage, he said his problem with Palin had to do with her saying things that are untrue, which caused problems for the campaign. It’s a practice you could say she has since perfected with the “death panels” of last summer, and continues today with an assertion made in Louisville, Ky., last week that the Founding Fathers really didn’t want separation of church and state.”
This right here tells me he is a F’in idiot. He made because Sarah is better than him at getting the message out. Sarah know hardball politics where as Schmidt only know cottonball politics.
Steve, ol' buddy, ol' pal, it depends on whether you want to win short-term political points...or win in the arena of ideas.
Sixty Republican compromisers would merely serve as the foil for forty committed liberal Democrats -- a recipe for loss long-term. Thirty strong conservatives are a base that you can build from.
This is an ideological struggle, not an electoral skirmish.
But, Steve, you are a "political operative of the first order" -- so you wouldn't understand that. You ninny.
She is a nasty crone. Eleonor Clift has no intellignece whatever and just reads the DNC talking points wherever she goes.
Clift should jump off cliff and take Schmidt with her.
Who is the more dense? Schmidt? Or Clift?
Schmidt will be the first Republican against the wall after the revolution.
I know—for instance—what was untruthful about calling death panels, DEATH PANELS?
Elea-manure never has a nice day.
And he would STILL try to blame Ronald McDonald when he screws up someones order.
Palin was spot on w death panels remarks and the only one w the balls to say it.
She is the only reason I am staying the gop so far.
Additionally she is the only reason I volunteered for mccain and spent a week in pa on my own dime in 2008.
Are we supposed to believe that Hell-eanor is writing this because she wants Palin to succeed and be elected.
Yeah right.
Before he took the stage, he said his problem with Palin had to do with her saying things that are untrue, which caused problems for the campaign.
Since he doesn't cite anything specific, I assume he's referring to the "palling around with terrorists" line, which was given to her by the campaign to say, and which was absolutely true.
and continues today with an assertion made in Louisville, Ky., last week that the Founding Fathers really didn't want separation of church and state.
She said no such thing. Saying the US is a "Christian nation" is not the same as saying we should have a Christian theocracy for a government.
“he scoffed with a laugh, explaining that he lives and works in northern California, which offers geographic and cultural distance from the battles that animate Washington politics. “
Is that the stink I keep getting a whiff of??? LOL
Is Schmidt still thick with McCain? I haven’t heard McCain denounce Schmidt for all his slurs against Palin. Did I miss it?
Guess he is too dumb to understand what was meant by the government not establishing a religion, not a government that denies people the right to practice their religion.
Unless of course, it’s islam.
From the article:
“Schmidt quoted a former Republican Party chair, from the pre-Palin heyday, who said there are two types of churches—one where members hunt for heretics to kick them out, the other where people go out looking for converts to bring them in.”
And then there’s a third approach. Have no meaningful beliefs so that anyone with any beliefs may be in the party, as long as they have money or are willing to vote for a person with no beliefs but who articulates his beliefs well.
At least the democrats stand for something. It’s odious. But if you lift the cover, there is always someone there who wants to increase the size, intrusiveness, and power of government.
Thank our lucky stars that we have dems like Eleanor Clift instructing us on how to behave.
Even CLINTOON wouldn’t let her give him one! She is a sour old dried up Libtard Prune who is able to make Helen Thomas appear attractive by comparison........:-)
She is a liar. This man did nothing but hurt Pslin.
WE as conservatives need to have a candidate that is BOTH formidable and clearly conservative.
I will bet that Palin runs a successful campaign long before Schmidt ever does—if he ever does.
Eleanor “my-only-stock-in-trade-is-my-married-name” Clift.
Just list the nominees since Reagan: Bush, Bush, Dole, Bush, Bush, McCain. Yeesh.
“and continues today with an assertion made in Louisville, Ky., last week that the Founding Fathers really didn’t want separation of church and state.
She said no such thing. Saying the US is a “Christian nation” is not the same as saying we should have a Christian theocracy for a government.”
Even if she had said it, it is accurate. There is nowhere in the constitution that uses the phrase “seperation of church and state”, nor does it say no prayer in schools. Nor does the constitution state that we are to be a secular country.
In fact, Massachusetts had a state religion, and it was constitutional. It is only the Federal Government that “shall make no law respecting establishment of religion.” Congress also may not pass laws that prohibit the free exercise of religion.
Well said.
Reminds me of the question: Which is heavier, a pound of feathers, or a pound of lead? ;^)
A pound of gold./sarc.
“Palin was spot on w death panels remarks and the only one w the balls to say it.”
I know Sarah was right. They misinterpret what Sarah said and it was intentional.
I’m not going to post any quotes from Schmidt! There were so many to chose from that I couldn’t decide which one to use.
All I have to say about his interview is he’s toast!
Steve Schmidt Says No to Party of Palin - Eleanor Clift - Newsweek.com
on a bipartisan panel titled “Battle for the Soul of a Party,”
******
I don’t think anyone asked him.
Clift considers ‘bipartisan’ anyone who hates Republicans.
******
The Republican Party has no soul
By Jonathan Capehart - Washington Post
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/
Party of Palin
McCain’s campaign manager says the GOP should shy away from the closed-mindedness that his former running mate represents.
By Eleanor Clift | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 23, 2010
******
STEVE SCHMIDT is a Partner at Mercury, where he provides high level counsel to Fortune 500 companies. Formerly, he served as a Senior Advisor to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008 and Campaign Manager for the re-election of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.
With former Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe, Schmidt is a founding Fellow of the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware.
The Week held its seventh annual Opinion Awards Tuesday evening at the W Hotel. Guests were treated to cocktails and a seated dinner while award winners were celebrated. Jonathan Chait, columnist for The New Republic, Rob Rogers, editorial cartoonist for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Ezra Klein, Blogger for The Washington Post were all given awards.
“Battle for the Soul of a Party,” moderated by Sir Harold Evans. Panelists included Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Gov. Ed Rendell (D), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt.
Featured guests included Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC
The reception brought out many of Washington’s power players, including Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, First Lady press secretary Katie McCormick Lelyveld, Vice President At-Large of The Washington Post Ben Bradlee and others.
The correct spelling of Steve Schmidt’s name to account for for how he handled Sarah Palin is to remove the ‘c’ the ‘m’ and the ‘d’ from it.
she is a divisive figure: “dark,” he said to me, “us versus them, and she’s inciting regional divisions, which we haven’t seen in this country for a long time.” Her Fox News show, Real American Stories, draws 2 million viewers, standard fare for its Thursday-evening time slot on the Fox News Channel, respectable but nothing to write home about.
But the hyperattention paid to every Palin utterance, not only by Fox, inflates her importance, and makes a fringe group of disgruntled antitaxers seem like a movement ready to storm the Capitol.
Steve, you ran the campaign of a nearly four-term senator and decorated Vietnam POW, and arguably the most attractive young conservative candidate the GOP has had in a very long time (and I’m not just talking looks), against a first-term senator whose primary non-constitutional qualification for the job was and is that he sounds like The Old Spice Man Your Man Could Smell Like, and Joe. Freaking. Biden. And you lost. Dude, you suck.
Clift needs to get a life. She is one of the most nasty persons I have ever seen on TV.
This is not the first time Schmidt made the claim that Palin doesn't tell the truth. So far, he hasn't come up with any correct examples. Unfortunately for Schmidt, the Founders didn't want "separation of church and state". They wrote into the 1st Amendment that the Federal Government may not "establish" a church, like the Church of England. At the time that amendment was ratified and for years later several States had established State churches and the same First Amendment forbid the US Congress/Federal Government from doing a darn thing about it. And they didn't.
Schmidt's career consists of endorsing the bigotry of the the Democratic Party against conservatives, Republicans and originalists. He wants to be the enforcer for the elitists within the GOP. However, if any GOP'er hires him, we'll then know exactly where that GOP'er stands, and what he truly believes.
Schmidt, you're closer to the soul of the Democrat Party, than to the GOP. Palin drew 20,000 or was it 40,000 people, McCain drew what again? Who's closer to the soul of the GOP, Palin, McCain or Schmidt?
McCain's walked back from his 'don't be afraid of Obama' line. McCain now criticizes the Federal Government for the virtual fence and not for securing the border. McCain now sounds like a tax-cutter, instead of whining that tax cuts were for the rich. Looks to me, like McCain is distancing himself from Schmidt and moving closer to the soul of the GOP towards Palin.
Schmidt gives whole new shades of meaning to epic fail.
Glad I wasn’t trying to enjoy a meal at that table.
“[Schmidt]has already said it would be “catastrophic” if she were the Republican nominee in 2012. He’s not happy with Republicans reading people out of the party for lack of ideological purity, a view enshrined by Louisiana Sen. David Vitter’s declaration that he’d rather have 30 Republicans with strong conservative beliefs than 60 compromisers. “Good for him,” said Schmidt, “but that’s not a winning or a wise electoral strategy.”
Why should the GOP ever take advice on what is a winning strategy from this colossal loser? He should be reticent to even offer advice after the disaster he perpetrated in 2008. When Palin is President, this guy will be tending bar somewhere or flipping burgers?
Memo to Steve: no one believes Palin is a liar. Everyone this side of Keith Overbite thinks you are.
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