Sacramento-based political strategist Steve Schmidt, true to his take-no-prisoners style, hit "CBS' 60 Minutes" Sunday to detail how former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a rushed -- and wholly unprepared -- pick to be a heartbeat away from presidency as the running mate for Republican 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain.
Schmidt, the former campaign guru for McCain who is today a partner in Sacramento-based Mercury Public Affairs LLC, made the comments to CNN's Anderson Cooper on the Sunday broadcast of "60 Minutes." (Watch the segment here.)
The revelations about Palin, and Schmidt's detailed thoughts on the campaign, have come to light in a new book about the campaign called "Game Change" by veteran political reporters John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
The authors said Team McCain's quick hit choice of Sarah Palin was made in desperation, days before the GOP National Convention after it was clear McCain's first choice of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman would be a non-starter with Republicans. Schmidt said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis searched for possible female candidates on Google and "You Tube." And Palin, who popped up and originally looked like a brilliant stroke of luck, quickly proved problematic.
"In the immediate aftermath of her selection, it was clear to us that we had a lot of work to do,'' Schmidt said, adding that among them was to educate her in "a broad scale of national security issues."
Schmidt allowed that "she gave a great convention speech'' and the team came out of the GOP National Convention with a boost.
"Her focus was extraordinary, working 15, 16 hours a day,'' he said. "We were very pleased with the result.''
But he said it went downhill from there, especially after Palin didn't do her homework for the big Katie Couric interview on CBS. "The reason that interview was a failure was that she did not prepare for it,'' he said. "I don't think Katie Couric asked a single unfair question in that interview."
And then there was the factually-challenged Sarah, "numerous instances that she said things that were not accurate,'' and which the campaign had to deal with, he said.
Example: the ethics investigations and its aftermath in Alaska, which Schmidt said she mischaracterized. "She went out and said that this report completely exonerates me, and it didn't. It was the equivalent of saying down is up, and up is down..proveably, demonstrably untrue,'' he said.
As practice sessions loomed for the coming vice presidential debate, Schmidt said that it was looking to be "a debacle of historic proportions,'' and Palin was totally overwhelmed.
Repeatedly, he said, she kept calling Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden "Obiden'' in the debate practice sessions. In the end, he said, she decided just call him "Joe."
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