Former McCain Strategist Steve Schmidt On Game Change: Notion Of Palin Being President Frightens Me
Former McCain senior campaign strategist Steve Schmidt sat down with MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday morning and spoke candidly about his role in the 2008 presidential campaign, saying HBO’s Game Change was largely true.
“I think it was very accurate,” Schmidt acknowledged. “For all of us in the campaign, it really rang true. It gave you a little bit of PTSD at times. It did for me.But, look, I think it’s a story of when cynicism and idealism collide. When you have to do things necessary to win, to try to get in office to do the great things you want to do for the country and I think it showed a process of vetting that was debilitated by secrecy, that was compartmentalized, that failed, that led to a result that was reckless for the country and I think when you look back at that race, you see this person who is just so phenomenally talented at so many levels, an ability to connect but also someone who had a lot of flaws as someone running, you know, to be in the national command authority who clearly wasn’t prepared.”
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Panelist Willie Geist questioned Schmidt on whether the selection of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was a net positive or a net negative for the campaign.
“Politically, she was a net positive to the campaign,” Schmidt observed. “John McCain lost that race because the global economy imploded in the middle of September, and we were outspent by $250 million. I think a net negative in the sense that someone was nominated to the vice presidency who was manifestly unprepared to take the oath of office should it become necessary. And as it has become necessary many times in America.”
“Was it reckless of you?” Geist followed up.
“Well, I was part of a team that settled on the result, you know. I didn’t wake up one day and say ‘let’s pick her,'” Schmidt explained. “But there’s a scene in the movie where I’m saying to Senator McCain — it’s almost verbatim– the conversation that happened, saying I would rather lose by ten points than lose by one point saying, ‘did we do everything we can to win?’ And for me, the experience on this campaign is that there are worse things than losing.”
Mike Barnicle pressed Schmidt on what he meant by that.
“When a result happens that puts someone who is not prepared to be president on the ticket, that’s a bad result,” Schmidt added. “I think the notion of Sarah Palin being President of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly. And I played a part in that. And played a part in that because we were fueled by ambition to win. And I think that ambition to win, to victory is what drives people in politics. It is a chess match in a lot of ways, but that result in how we got there is something that troubles me a lot.”
Watch Schmidt’s analysis of the 2008 campaign below, via MSNBC:
