saw this item on Ambinder's twitter and finally found the quote from where it came from...the GOP continues to eat its young as the infighting between the McCain campaign and the GOP leadership hopefully consumes the talk show circuits this weekend. Ensign clearly doesn't want to be seen as the reason the democrats may end up with 60 in the Senate after Tuesday.
more after the fold...
here is the full quote...courtesy of Jon Ralston's blog
The head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee says Sarah Palin is not experienced enough to be president and says Joe Biden is "much more qualified."
He made comments to Jeff Gillan of NewsONE at 9.
The exact words:
GILLAN: do you think she's qualified to be President?
ENSIGN: well, I do not think that Barack Obama or her are experienced enough to be President of the United States - neither one of them, and Hillary Clinton was much more qualified to be President than Barack Obama was, but that who the nominee is. John McCain is much more qualified than Barack Obama and certainly Joe Biden is much more qualified than Sarah Palin is. I'd rather have the most qualified person at the top of the ticket, not number two.
Now of course he slams Obama as being too inexperienced but that is the common attack line from all the right wingers but for him to call out Palin at this late stage is pretty extraordinary, not exactly helpful to McCain. Also of note is that he says Biden is much more qualified than Palin, way too much straight talk...
will be interesting to see how much play this quote gets tomorrow and this weekend. Obama has an 8 point lead and in basketball terms, Obama is up 8 with 1 minute to play and each time this is discussed this weekend is pretty much like McCain turning the ball over allowing Obama to run out the clock and extend the lead.
Of course this continues the meme of tomorrow which will be the CBS/NYT poll which shows 59% of Americans do not believe she is capable of being POTUS.
All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.
And in a possible indication that the choice of Ms. Palin has hurt Mr. McCain’s image, voters said they had much more confidence in Mr. Obama to pick qualified people for his administration than they did in Mr. McCain.
what hurts worse is that Palin's uptick in being unqualifed comes from the independant voters which McCain has been bleeding lately and from THE BASE???
While a majority viewed Ms. Palin as unqualified for the vice presidency, roughly three-quarters of voters saw Mr. Obama’s running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, as qualified for the job. The increase in the number of voters who said Ms. Palin was not prepared was driven almost entirely by Republicans and independents.
Over all, views of Ms. Palin were apparently shaped more by ideology and party than by gender. Ms. Palin was viewed as unprepared for the job by about 6 in 10 men and women alike. But 8 in 10 Democrats viewed her as unprepared, as well as more than 6 in 10 independents and 3 in 10 Republicans.
looks like Palin's 2012 chances are going down the drain as well as she will be seen as the scapegoat for what is shaping up to be a possible landslide victory for Obama and the Democrats on Tuesday!
Bonus: Here is a great video of Biden and his impact on America with his Violence Against Women Act which has certainly not gotten its due this election year. I was at the Obama/Clinton rally last night and Clinton nailed it when he said that the campaign is a job interview with America and usually candidates get one chance to show their judgment, with their VP pick and Obama hit it out of the park!
Added Bonus: Here are some shots I took at yesterday Obama/President Clinton Rally!
"President Santos"
Congresswoman Brown!
Sneator Bill Nelson!
the Dynamic duo!