John McCain is the biggest pain in the neck maverick; said Newt Gingrich yesterday on C-Span.
So, I just started to listen to him. No knowing this man so well, I was sort of disappointed (Basically, he dissed Obama and Biden and praised the wooooooooonderful experience of Gov Palin). But I also though, for the first time in a long time: At last a republican who is good at talking, who is articulate and who can express his ideas in a fashionnable way (if not an objective one).
The emphases are mine.
John McCain is the biggest pain in the neck maverick the republican party had since Barry Goldwater. I tried to tell people: If five and a half years of North Vietnamese couldn't coerce you (audience laughing) the idea that the republican caucus was gonna intimidate him was silly.
(...)
This is one of those magic moments. There is no other republican who could have been nominated, who could have made this race plausibly winnable. Because it is impossible to make the rational argument that McCain is the third term of GWB. I mean, no serious adult is gonna believe that.*
Then come 3 minutes where Gingrich talks about why Obama chose Biden over Clinton (not really convincing so I won't write it down because I want to give a transcript of what really interested me).
So now John mcCain faces his first (1) decision. These are fascinating decisions because they tell you a lot about the candidate. Now McCain personaly I think in a world where there (would be (2)) no corps interest would have picked Liebermann. He loves Liebermann, they have done a lot of things together over the years. He thinks Liebermann has enormous courage and he thinks on the most important issue, our survival as a country, he thinks Liebermann is exactly right and it would be an enormous message to the country. But he also understood he leads a party.
(Some more democratic bashing) (...)
You couldn't at a practical level pick Al Gore's VP nominee to be the nominee of this party. That it was to big a jump and I think McCain very wisely and reluctantly concluded that. When he had an enormous pressure from his staff and some other to pick somebody and by the way we had great choice, I think Gov. Pawlenty would have been a great choice, Gov Romney would have been a great choice. But they were all of them candidely, relatively normal (3) republicans.
(More liberal bashing and audience laughter)
So, now, McCain picks somebody who seemed to be a woman. (Audience laughter) And there was a brief moment when feminists looked up and they were confused. And then they felt that first of all (...) she is an NRA life member. Well, from the entire left wing of the democratic party, that means not only is she not a woman, she may not actually be human cause after all what kind of... Fred Thomson said something last night. (...) I got the most important single signal about how dangerous she is to the democratic party in a line where he said, she is the first candidate (2) since Theodore Roosevelt who knows how to field dress a moose.
(Praising Palin, dissing Biden, saying Biden says he's from Scranton, that's true, but he is from Scranton before they had cars (4) )
This reporter fomr MSNBC came to me and said: What about the experience problem?
And I said, well, you know,I think Obama has a huge challenge. And he went into this riff.
(Official praise for Palin experience as a mayor directly taken from the RP play book versus Obama being a community organiser)
I challenge you to go to South (1) Chicago and find one real accomplishment of the Obama years.
Then smear about Obama and Ayers, followed by things like Obama talks well but she knows how to use an M16 so who do you think is better to become commander in chief.
(I was asked) Are you really comfortable with her as a potential commander in chief? I said look, if I had to ake up tomorrow morning and my choice was Senator Obama, Senator Biden or Governor Palin, I would tell you with zero reservation I would be more comfortable with Sena... (5) Governor Palin as commander in chief cause shehas the right attitude, she has the right values, she has the right courage (and so on...)
At that point my internet connection crashed for a minute.
I just thought I would share this because it shows, I think that even one of the smartest republicans (wether you like it or not) can't really find anything good to say about Gov Palin and has to repeat all the idiotic party lines in order to make his point.
This doesn't sound convincing enough to me.
Notes about the transcript (sorry, if I got it wrong sometimes).
* Really???
(1) Sorry, I couldn't understand the missing word. Help needed.
(2) Not sure I heard well.
(3) So, is Sarah Palin not normal?
(4) Reminder, Biden is 6 years younger than McCain.
(5) I love this Freudian slip, don't you?