Sarah Palin is being blamed for the current GOP dysfunction by President Barack Obama’s former aide, William Daley. According to Daley, Senator John McCain’s decision to have Palin on the 2008 presidential ticket and to let her go rogue and say outrageous things opened the door to controversial figures like Todd Akin and Donald Trump.
The GOP’s dysfunction is Sarah Palin‘s fault, according to political expert and former Obama aide, William Daley. On Sunday, Mr. Daley, who briefly served as the White House Chief of Staff from January 2011 to January 2012, wrote a lengthy Op-Ed where he explained that author and former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin was the beginning of the dysfunction and circus that are taking place in the Republican party.
Daley, who was a candidate for the Illinois governorship, said Senator John McCain should have never picked someone incompetent and unready for the spotlight as Mrs. Palin to become the first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.
It has often been repeated in Washington that the grown-ups or GOP establishment never wanted Palin on the ticket, especially after discovering that her then-teenage daughter, Bristol Palin, was pregnant out of wedlock. However, the Arizona politician and war hero was a maverick, who obeyed no one and decided to have Palin as a running mate to get women to the voting booths. Daley wrote:
Sadly, Palin owes her fame to 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, who is generally one of the party’s more thoughtful and substantive veterans…Whether McCain actively sought Palin in 2008 or passively yielded to aides’ pressure, he set a new standard for GOP candidates who rely on lots of sizzle and little substance.
By the campaign’s end, GOP operatives were shielding Palin from even the simplest questions. (She had flunked “what newspapers do you read?”).
Daley, who was the U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1997 to 2000 under President Bill Clinton, went on to remind the world that Palin became a mega star despite her countless gaffes and her inability to give substantive answers on issues that matter to the American people.
The former sportscaster sold millions of books, was a paid commentator on FOX News, had a couple of TV shows, and became the de facto leader of the Tea Party movement and was able to propel several candidates to the spotlight. Remember Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Todd Akin and Christine O’Donnell. The piece went on to say:
It’s hard to feel much sympathy. The Republican establishment’s 2008 embrace of Palin set an irresponsibly low bar. Coincidence or not, a batch of nonsense-spewing, hard-right candidates quickly followed, often to disastrous effect. In Delaware, the utterly unprepared Christine O’Donnell promised “I’m not a witch,”…In Missouri Republicans hoped to oust Sen. Claire McCaskill (D). Those hopes died when GOP nominee Todd Akin opined that “the female body” could somehow prevent pregnancy from “a legitimate rape.”
The GOP is still paying for Palin’s stardom, says Daley, who believes that Donald Trump and his clown show, and Ben Carson are the direct results of her candidacy. Daley concluded by saying:
Trump calls Palin “a special person” he’d like in his Cabinet. That seems only fair, because he’s thriving in the same cynical value system that puts opportunistic soundbites above seriousness, preparedness and intellectual heft.
While Daley is piling the blame on Palin, others say Speaker John A. Boehner and the Tea Party are the real reasons why the right will not win the White House in the near future.
LMAO!!!
Palin was indeed a problem and a dysfunction – BUT the GOP machine can’t get away with blaming their problems on one person – it was there and it was just a whole bunch slicker.
Really, blaming it on a woman again!
Bill Dailey definitely knows a thing or two about dysfunction, so we should pay attention to everything he says. I want all of America to be just like Chicago someday.