Thursday, January 07, 2010

Steve Schmidt: Palin Helped the McCain Campaign

60 Minutes will broadcast an interview with Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of Game Change, a new book about the 2008 presidential campaigns. One interesting note in the CBS report on the interview is that Steve Schmidt believes Palin was a plus for the McCain campaign.
Schmidt believes the Obama-Biden victory would have been even more lopsided without Palin on the Republican ticket.
This is a small positive note, but unexpected in view of the press meme of bad blood. Similarly, Palin's positive words* for Schmidt in Going Rogue went against the press declaration that Palin's book was about settling political scores.
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*"I knew instantly that Schmidt was business-to-the-bone. I respect that in a person, as I'm not one for a lot of chitchat either, and we were very comfortable with each other right off the bat. As a public relations troubleshooter, Schmidt specialized in shaping public opinion. His peers later told me he has a laserlike ability to spot chinks in an opponent's armor. He is a guy who inspires loyalty: in spite of his steely exterior, people who work for him really want to please him."
(Going Rogue, pp. 212-213)

2 comments:

OregonGuy said...

It really has been an enjoyable read, hasn't it?

I'm up to where she and her family have entered Alaska's Governor's Mansion.
.

T. D. said...

She writes in a leisurely, enjoyable style despite living a super-fastpaced, productive life.

I'm enjoying the audio version of the book.