If the definition of a gaffe is a politician accidentally telling the truth, this is absolutely, positively, one hundred percent gaffetastic:
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.”
Eagleburger explained: “I don’t think at the moment she is prepared to take over the reins of the presidency. I can name for you any number of other vice presidents who were not particularly up to it either. So the question, I think, is can she learn and would she be tough enough under the circumstances if she were asked to become president, heaven forbid that that ever takes place?
“Give her some time in the office and I think the answer would be, she will be [pause] adequate. I can’t say that she would be a genius in the job. But I think she would be enough to get us through a four year… well I hope not… get us through whatever period of time was necessary. And I devoutly hope that it would never be tested.”
The most appalling aspect of the groupthink on the right has been the need for many of them to pretend that this this train wreck in heels is somehow fit to be commander-in-chief. BTW- I eagerly await the Eagleburger walkback on this one. Good luck, Larry.
dmsilev
I’m guessing that the next time the subject comes up, John McCain will claim to be endorsed by four, rather than five, former Secretaries of State.
The Dungeon of Despair filled with disgraced McCain flacks, surrogates, and spokesbeings must be near capacity. Do you think Eagleburger will have to hot-bunk with Carly Fiorina?
-dms
zmulls
"Palin — Adequate Soon Enough"
Man, what a bumper sticker that would make!
Notorious P.A.T.
Or maybe the wingnuts will say he’s just saying that to promote a book.
Punchy
If Obama is worth his chops, he will excoriate McPalin on the stump with this exact quote. His surrogates will repeat it on every news show. This echos what Lieberman has said, too.
Where the hell has TZ been?
Zifnab
$5 says Eagleburger is voting for Obama.
Comrade Darkness
Fixed.
With a name like Eagleburger–it has to be good.
DBrown
Once again, truth just has a liberal bias
DonnaInMichigan
To the hell with McCain/Palin..
I say Palin/Sam-Joe T. Plumber!!!
Yea, that’s the ticket!!!!
DonnaInMichigan
Hey….did John ever find his little Sam-Joe yesterday?
I know he lost him in Ohio…did he ever find him?
McCain can’t draw crowds, so he has to bus in over 4,000 school kids, and also have Sam-Joe T Plumber show up….
Poor McCain…his campaign has been hi-jacked by a plumber…oh well, as it is showing his 2nd run at becoming President is going down the toilet anyways…
Ohhhh Johnny boy
the pipes the pipes are calling………….(sung to the tune of Oh Danny boy)…
The Grand Panjandrum
McCains response?
Any questions? If you meet Governor Palin she will mystically change your mind about her readiness for the Oval Office. Holy shit, Batman! And we thought Obama was the only one using magical hypnotic powers to seduce voters.
ksmiami
And before people start making fun of Quayle again, I met the guy doing a photoshoot at a prestigious club and he was nice, intelligent and polite. 3 qualities that McPalin don’t have at all. And that is why they will lose. Being mean and stupid has never won elections.
Catpain Haddock
Oh, how does W fit into that assumption?
boonagain
I submit the name of Spiro T. Agnew
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
Working. And posting occasionally, as I am doing now.
As for Obama bashing McFailin on this … no, not gonna happen. If you saw his Rachel Maddow interview last night, you will understand. Obama does not like confrontational politics.
I don’t have the transcript in front of me, but the question was basically, McCain is bashing you with good old anti-Democrat rhetoric. Why don’t you bash back? He responded that he didn’t want that kind of contentious and ideological stuff to get in the way of the more important message.
Comrade Jake
@The Grand Panjandrum:
That was pretty much his response on Colin Powell’s endorsement too. You have to hand it to the guy. It’s the only response that allows McCain to reconcile the fact that he chose Palin after meeting her once, maybe twice, with the fact that so many other people think she’s a complete idiot.
If only they met her, they’d know how brilliant she is. Just ask
Katie CouricSean Hannity.Tattoosydney
@ksmiami:
I think that if Obama wins, Dan Quayle will be a happy man.
After all, even though people will still make snarky Dan Quayle-as-VP-choice references, they will (for the rest of our lives) immediately follow them with "Of course, he was no Sarah Palin. Fuck, she was bad."
Xecky Gilchrist
@Catpain Haddock: Oh, how does W fit into that assumption?
He had the 527s be mean and stupid for him, and played down his own meanness and stupidity.
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
Had a moment of nonlaziness and looked it up.
boonagain
I bet that Dan Quayle is loving him some Sarah Palin about now. He has to be very relieved that someone took the worst VP choice/biggest joke title away from him.
Comrade Jake
@I’mRubberYou’reGlue:
Maddow was on GMA this morning being asked by Meredith Viera about that interview. Christ, she made it clear who the intellectual lightweight was in that conversation. Meredith was trying to push her this way and that, but Maddow was having none of it, and directed the conversation to precisely the right place.
Maddow’s contention was that Obama knows he’s likely to need the help of a good number of Republicans in the Senate. He’s not likely to have enough with the Dems coming up just short of 60. So, an outright demonization of all things GOP doesn’t serve Obama well from the perspective of governing after the election. Many on the left will no doubt be disappointed by this perspective, but I think it’s the essence of what Obama’s been talking about for a long time, and I think it’s absolutely the right way to go.
boonagain
@I’mRubberYou’reGlue: Can you believe we actually have a Presidential Candidate talking to us as if we were cognitive adults?
dmsilev
@Comrade Jake:
This is one of the things that really impresses me about Obama, especially in contrast to McCain. Obama has actually given some thought about how he’ll govern, as opposed to just having November 4th tunnel vision, and then making things up as he goes from there. The most vivid demonstration of this, of course, was the selection of the VP nominees. Obama conducted an extensive process, eventually settling on someone who will be of great help in actually governing. McCain, well, hes spent five minutes talking with someone who caused Rich Lowry to see starbursts.
-dms
ksmiami
Catpain Haddock
Yeah – but Bush never came across as mean as Palin and McCain – his policies were mean as hell, but he himself came across as a likeable guy – more than Gore / Kerry did. If I never have to look at McCain’s sneer again, it won’t be soon enough.
jrg
Given enough time, Palin will no longer be a religious fanatic, a narcissist, incurious, poorly educated, or a pathological liar.
What a joke. It is way too optimistic to say that Palin will one day be "adequate". She is not even cognitively equipped to be trained for the job. They may as well be trying to put a parrot through medical school.
Tattoosydney
Palin/Parrot 2012
Comrade Jake
@dmsilev:
Agreed. He is going to surprise a good number of people by the choices he makes once he’s in office. He will make an earnest effort to find common ground with a good number of Republicans, even those who are outright despised by the left.
The Moar You Know
Translation: If she takes over I’ve got a seat reserved on the last plane out.
Brian J
Oh, come on, John Cole. This is one is easy. It’s Halloween. Larry Eagleburger was trying to scare us into thinking that we had someone like Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency, because a McCain win is all but certain.
That makes sense…right?
gbear
The folks over at FDL will be so outraged that they’ll barely be able to type thru their tears.
JL
It’s all about the wink!!
Tattoosydney
@DonnaInMichigan:
I suspect that Joe might be too busy cashing in on his fifteen minutes to worry about that politics stuff… but I am sure that any of these guys would fill the bill admirably…
Punchy
Fixed.
The Moar You Know
@ksmiami: You have a point. Look, Quayle is not a rocket scientist. He didn’t need to be. But I would bet money that he is:
A. Smarter than George Bush
B. Quite a bit more competent than George Bush
C. Wouldn’t nuke Russia for the lulz as would Sarah Palin
D. Is not a batshit fundie
E. Actually gives a shit about the country
I also suspect he did a lot of the daily grunt/shit/heavy lifting work for Poppy Bush. Would I vote for him as President? Fuck no. But I wouldn’t be scrambling to emigrate if he ended up being President – and that’s more than I can say for Sarah Palin.
The Moar You Know
@jrg: I would feel far better about letting a parrot take a shot at properly diagnosing, and performing surgery on me for that matter, than Sarah Palin.
JL
My son just called and after standing in line since 7:50 am , he finally voted for THAT ONE. The repub secretary of state changed his address but because he voted early, they were able to sorta fix it. Sorta because he had to cast a ballot in the wrong district. Oh and I guess by Saxby’s terms, he’s one of the other ones.
Tsulagi
That’s funny. Isn’t Eagleburger one of the past SoS five McCain likes to name as supporting his judgment? Shorter Eagleburger: Pray for McCain’s health! And if that doesn’t work out, maybe, just maybe if we’re lucky in four years she might be “adequate.” Ringing endorsement.
What was that campaign slogan? Oh yeah, Country First. You just don’t see the asterisk. The one where below it says in fine print: Unless I’m six feet under, then fuck it.
JL
The local news (Atlanta) just reported on a polling site that just now received more polling machines. (black area) They now have 12 machines. The line is over 600 people. GEEE, I was upset that my lily white area only had 20 machines.
Tsulagi
If newly-minted wingnut McCain doesn’t want to overuse the “he just hasn’t met Palin” excuse for Eagleburger, he can always fall back on the “he doesn’t see the big picture” base favorite. Would like to see the comedy of him using that one for some others in the ranks not on message. Like Petraeus, who recently said we should be visiting with Syria. You know, for some of that terrorist palling around stuff Obama has endorsed as one tool: talks and diplomacy.
Doesn’t he agree with The Mav that talks and diplomacy without prior fixed immutable conditions are the result of dangerous inexperience in charge? Jesus is weeping.
Even the Magical Unity General thinks there’s going to be a new boss in town come January.
jenniebee
Sorry, but no on all counts, especially about the batshit fundie thing. Quayle is not only a "Social Security is ‘creeping socialism’ and it takes away our freedoms" con-con, but his church can go guano-y-guano with Palin’s witch doctor any day of the week.
And if Dan Quayle was doing any work for Poppy beyond creating embarrassing photo ops at elementary schools, it sure was a well kept secret at the time.
Cyrus
@The Grand Panjandrum:
This former Secretary of State, one several whose support and endorsement McCain proudly touts, has never had a chance to meet Palin?
How long has she been on the ticket now? Is McCain saying that the campaign has not only been sequestering her from the media, but from other Republicans as well?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I also saw that interview and it made me think that Obama is also playing the long game on realignment of voter self-identification. My speculation is that he realizes that people tend to rationalize their voting choices after the fact, so the important thing to do now is to get people voting for the Democrat and then in future electoral cycles down the road get them to rebrand themselves as Democrats rather than Republicans, using cognitive bias and rationalization as a lever for the latter task.
IIRC this is how it worked with the “Reagan Democrats” – it wasn’t common to call them that until after the 1984 elections, because prior to that they weren’t sufficiently invested in the idea of voting for a GOP President to lock in the idea that these voters were a reliable pro-GOP bloc. In fact during the 1980 election Reagan made a big point of attacking Carter and his policies rather than all Democrats generically, reaching out to Democrats and emphasizing his early roots in the Democratic party, using the signature line that “I didn’t leave the party, the party left me”. Obama appears to be doing something similar today.
Matthew
I like McCain’s response that "He just hasn’t met her yet" like she’s some disliked girlfriend everyone will really like if they only got a chance to meet her in person or really understood their connection to each other. They’re in love Eagleburger! You can’t stand in the way of that!!!!!
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Obama is a uniter, not a divider… now if we could just that 30% or so of the country that has gone totally off the rails to notice, we could do truly great and wondrous things.
Comrade Darkness
Wasn’t a secret at all what he was up to. The first stages of tearing down the legislative branch as an equal part of government started with these losers and their power grab with how they selectively executed the laws they were given to enforce. Quayle had a key role in that as head of the Council on Competitiveness. Because Reagan/Bush/Quayle admin believed the executive branch should have one stop clearinghouse for big business to bypass the rule of law.
He also hated science. I remember his lovely: "why don’t we say they’re wetlands if they’re wet?" classic oversimplification line.
Comrade Darkness
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII: Obama is a uniter, not a divider… now if we could just that 30% or so of the country that has gone totally off the rails to notice, we could do truly great and wondrous things.
I was thinking that with the woman who has the Obama dummy hanging in effigy on her house with rather a lot of fake blood and a sharp object in the larynx area. She claims to have been driven to it because Obama "refuses to wear a flag pin and was sworn in on the Koran"
Okay. This is some pretty fucked up stuff here. It is not only untrue by any measure of truth, but meaningless on top of it. It begs the question of if one could inform such people of the truth and let’s make a leap and assume that they’d absorb it, does that work? Clearly the truth is not what they are interested in. I’m assuming they would substitute the next meaningless crap they heard as a valid excuse to continue living unhinged lives. Is it terminal, or what’s the best tactic here?
All I could think was, thank g-d she’s not my neighbor. I’d probably be driven to something pretty spectacular involving very large lighted changeable message signs.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I can’t say CD, it sounds like she’s heavily into drama.
Joe Beese
A dead parrot.
Cyrus
@Tattoosydney:
And just like in the current election, the bottom of the ticket would be more appealing to strong Republicans than the top.
Comrade Tax Analyst
Fixed.
Comrade Tax Analyst
Hmmm…there was SUPPOSED to be a strike-thru of "Adequate Soon Enough"…saw it on the "Preview", but not now???
Comrade Tax Analyst
Let’s try it again, OK? I’ll put the change down below the blockquote area.
Change to: "Palin–Possibly Adequate Some Day"
cleek
Loose-lips Larry learned his lesson. LOL.
HyperIon
jenniebee, your link to the Quayle is astounding and
excellent!
Just Some Fuckhead
lol indeed. I used to have a tiny bit of respect for Larry Eagleburger.
John S.
It has already happened on a few issues during the election — I have no reason to expect it will get better when he’s POTUS,
Only if you have been paying attention.
I couldn’t agree more.
Nancy Irving
This is not a game.
McCain is an old man–what, 72?–who could drop dead at any moment.
His father died at ~70, his grandfather at ~61according to Wikipedia.
Folks, the time has come when all good men must come to the aid of their country.
It doesn’t matter who can shoot moose.