Advisers Say Conservative Ire Pushed McCain Away From Lieberman; Choice reflects "risky decisions"

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

....For weeks, advisers close to the campaign said, Mr. McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat turned independent. But by the end of last weekend, the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that Mr. McCain would fill out the Republican ticket with Mr. Lieberman, a supporter of abortion rights, had become too intense to be ignored. With time running out, and after a long meeting with his inner circle in Phoenix, Mr. McCain finally picked up the phone last Sunday and reached Ms. Palin at the Alaska State Fair. Although the campaign’s polling on Mr. McCain’s potential running mates was inconclusive on the selection of Ms. Palin — virtually no one had heard of her, a McCain adviser said — the governor, who opposes abortion, had glowing reviews from influential social conservatives.

Mr. McCain was comfortable with two others on his short list, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. But neither was the transformative, attention-grabbing choice Mr. McCain felt he needed, top campaign advisers said, to help him pivot from his image as the custodian of the status quo to a change agent like his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama. Not least, Mr. Obama’s decision to pass over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate opened the possibility for Republicans to put a woman on the ticket and pick off some of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters.

At 11 a.m. on Thursday, at the McCain vacation compound near Sedona, Ariz., Mr. McCain invited Ms. Palin to join him on the ticket. He hardly knew her, and she had virtually no foreign policy experience, but Ms. Palin was a “kindred spirit,” a McCain adviser said. Mr. McCain was betting, the adviser said, that she would help him reclaim the mantle of maverick that he had lost this year.

The selection was the culmination of a five-month process, described by Mr. McCain’s inner circle and outside advisers in interviews this past weekend, and offers a glimpse into how Mr. McCain might make high-stakes decisions as president. At the very least, the process reflects Mr. McCain’s history of making fast, instinctive and sometimes risky decisions. “I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can,” Mr. McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For.” “Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.”...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/politics/31reconstruct.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

[C_U_L8R]

1. An irascible decision

Faced with the most important decision of
his candidacy, McCain made a hasty one.

John McCain. Unfit for office.

[Kerrytravelers]

2. McCain may live with the consequences without complaint, but that is hardly the way to run a country

as influential as the United States. We need someone who thinks through things, someone who looks at the depth of the water and makes a decision based on the facts, not a reactionary who will cannonball into the pool to make a splash without being smart enough to check that there is water in the pool first.

If they manage to smear, fear and steal this election, this country, I feel, won't be able to recover from the damage these two will inflict upon the world.

[adamuu]

18. "I live with the consequences without complaint" == dry drunk Bush

That is a self-centered attitude we have come to expect from a dry-drunk. All of America should be able to spot this, by now. McCain assumes that the only person that suffers from McCain's bad decisions is McCain. I am reminded of Bush.

[Fearless]

3. When do I get a "vacation compound"?

...I'm waiting...

[chelsea0011]

4. What else could this pick be, but a bone to solidify a shaky base?

There is no rhyme or reason to pick her if not for guns and wombs.And the media is portraying this as McCain at his maverick best when it it nothing more than a cave-in.

[blondie58]

5. I find myself wondering what Cindy thinks of his choice

of having a former beauty contestant on the ticket.

[bitchkitty]

6. She's got the bucks - I don't think she cares.

Let him call someone else the C-word for a change.

I've always been curious as to WHY she would marry him. I think she wants to be First Lady, there's no other plausible reason.

[Demeter]

7. GOP Done In By the Fundies!

Isn't justice sweet?

[yurbud]

8. the religious right, long the life vest of the money party. is now their cement shoes

[swimmernsecretsea]

9. I almost feel sorry for Lieberman. Almost.

He did it to himself, though. Nobody can stand to be in the same room as he now.

[Blasphemer]

13. Heh... Sad and pathetic isn't it?

He prematurely dumps the Democratic party, hitching his wagon to a declining GOP out of blind ambition and pure spite and he has nothing to show for it. Now, had he remained loyal to the Democratic party and it's voters and values, he would have been well positioned to get a cabinet position in Obama's administration. His is a cautionary tale to be sure.

[adamuu]

20. "It's only halftime." :((((

[neomonkey]

10. "How's the family? Oh, by the way, would you like to be my VP?" n/t

[Terran]

11. He lives with the consequences...

All well and good when only HE has to live with consequences. Palin is a consequence the whole world may have to live with. McCain is the very definition of self-centered cynicism.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. I live with the consequences without complaint.”...

America can't afford that luxury Mr. McRambo.

[Zambero]

14. No man is an island (except for poor Joe)

He already knew that Democrats hated him, and now he learns that Republicans are equally repulsed by the mere mention of his name. It looks like this fool burned all his bridges, unaware of the fact that the gilded road leading to GOP-Land had been barricaded!

[stubtoe]

15. "Sarah Palin: Babies, Guns, Jesus"

Rush loves her: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_082908/content/01125111.guest.html

[Triana]

16. The PROBLEM with HIS decisions as President is that OTHER PEOPLE would have to live..

...with them, too.

NOT just him. He's an idiot.

[customerserviceguy]

17. Sorry to have to ask this

but who could McLame have picked that would make us happy? Pawlenty has as little foreign affairs experience as Palin. Mittens would outlaw beer, and give his robot missionaries another talking point. And we'd all feel even more betrayed by Joementum if he were to take this job.

I say, let's be glad that all McPain could do was toss a Hail Mary, and be sure we don't let her sucker us into using our ammunition on her, rather than on him. If we do, we let him hide behind her skirts.

[adamuu]

19. Sure. We're ready to pounce no matter what the pick.

This is what McCain chose. This is the reaction. If he had chosen someone else, the reaction would have been different. Hard to say which would have been worse for him and better for us... its like asking who you would rather win a dog show. Meh. pick one and let's get back to real business.

[yardwork]

23. Her lack of qualifications make this choice positively scary.

I don't want McCain in the White House, and I wouldn't have liked any possible running mate he chose. But Sarah Palin is an unbelievably irresponsible choice, because what if McCain wins the election and then dies? Imagine Sarah Palin as president.

She doesn't believe in contraception for married couples.

[tblue37]

21. Yeah--

“I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can,” Mr. McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For.” “Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.”

But unfortunately, if he gets elected, we are the ones who will have to live with the ugly consequences of his hasty decisions.

[jberryhill]

22. Ambien /nt

[LeftishBrit]

24. I don't care whether McCain can live with the consequences

I care whether THE WHOLE WORLD can live with the consequences!

[arewenotdemo]

25. "Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.”

"And, my friends, elect me and you can too!"

[brentspeak]

26. The "maverick" caves in and knuckles under.