Wow - he's not backtracking, he is running and screaming away from his previous comments.
Former Secretary of State and McCain surrogate Lawrence Eagleburger said yesterday that Palin was not prepared to take over the presidency. Clearly, just saying what he meant. Oops.
Here is what Eagleburger had to say yesterday:
Boy, I can only imagine what the McCain campaign said to him. Something along the lines of "great, thanks - it's your fault now if Obama wins!"
Here is Eagleburger today...and all I can say is WOW. Too bad the damage is done. No one is going to believe that he means what he is saying today and didn't mean it yesterday. Please.
Update:
Here is a portion of the transcript:
You are witnessing something quite unique. A man who is about to talk to you while he has his foot in his mouth. I made a serious mistake yesterday. I was quoted correctly, I wasn't thinking when I said it. In fact,I was discussing it in foreign policy and it was in that context and I was just plain stupid. And if I have given the flim flam artist Barack Obama some success with this, I am deeply apologetic, I did not intend it.
I'm sorry, I made a terrible mistake.
Q: I just want to give you another opportunity to straighten this out. You do feel she is a quick learner and would be good as vice president within a few days?
A: Within the first few days? No. But as a matter of fact, she has demonstrated from the time she was first nominated...She has made it clear that she's a quick learner.
Update 2: h/t to TPM, where I saw this first.