On August 29, Dick Morris said of Gov. Sarah Palin: "[I]t's OK if the Republicans nominated somebody for vice president who needs a little warm-up time 'til they become president." But discussing Palin on June 16, Morris said that Sen. John McCain “needs someone with a little more experience” for vice president.
Morris flip-flops on whether Palin has enough experience to be McCain's running mate
Written by Christine Schwen
Published
Discussing possible vice-presidential choices on the June 16 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Fox News contributor and columnist Dick Morris said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is “a very bright woman and very good. She would be an excellent choice. But I think that he [Sen. John McCain] needs someone with a little more experience.” However, on the August 29 edition of Hannity & Colmes -- after McCain picked Palin as his running mate -- Morris said of Palin: "[I]t's OK if the Republicans nominated somebody for vice president who needs a little warm-up time 'til they become president." Morris did not explain how his current view squares with his June 16 comments.
From the June 16 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:
COLMES: All right. Has McCain got the converse issue of Barack Obama? He doesn't need someone with experience, he needs someone to rejuvenate his campaign, right?
MORRIS: He needs a wow factor. He needs someone where you look at it and you just say, wow. And there are four people that I think so far do that for me at least: Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Mike Bloomberg, and Joe Lieberman. I think the name that you put on there, I think her first name was Sarah Palin --
COLMES: Yeah, Palin. Yeah.
MORRIS: -- the governor of Alaska, she's a very bright woman and very good. She would be an excellent choice. But I think that he needs someone with a little more experience --
SEAN HANNITY (co-host): Hey, Dick --
MORRIS: -- at this go-around, but I think either of the four names I mentioned would do it. Another Southern governor, and people are going to fall asleep.
From the August 29 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:
MORRIS: When I saw the speech -- it was wonderful. It is one of the all-time great speeches. It ranks up there with Lincoln's second inaugural, with John Kennedy's only inaugural.
What I was critical of on the show was that I had just read the excerpts that his campaign put out, so I figured it was the best stuff, which was a short list of programs, and I had wanted him to go through a State of the Union-type speech. He did. He enumerated all of these programs. And there's a lot of stuff in it that I disagree with, there's a lot of stuff that's wrong, but it was a brilliant speech. The problem is, and you just saw it here, when he equates Bush with McCain and says they're the same, saying that Sarah Palin is more of same is like equating Cameron Diaz with Doris Day.
COLMES: I'm not sure which is which there. But in any event, so -- in terms of the analogy, I mean.
MORRIS: A young modern person, as opposed to George Bush.
COLMES: All right. But here, you know Sarah Palin. And doesn't this take the experience argument off the table? You can't say Barack Obama's not experienced and say, “But we're embracing Sarah Palin to go against Joe Biden for vice president.”
MORRIS: There's a difference for somebody running for teacher and somebody running for student. Theoretically, Obama, who has only about the same amount of experience that Palin has --
COLMES: Or that Bush had.
MORRIS: -- in statewide office, is a -- is running for president of the United States. Palin is running for vice president, to bring her fresh approach, but learn at the master's knee.
COLMES: Don't you need somebody who's ready day one to be president of the United States?
MORRIS: Yeah, it would be nice if the Democrats nominated somebody like that, but they didn't.
COLMES: They did.
MORRIS: But it's OK if the Republicans nominated somebody for vice president who needs a little warm-up time 'til they become president. The thing about Sarah Palin -- and it's the key thing to remember -- is this woman challenged the corrupt Republican establishment of Alaska. Frank Murkowski, the governor of Alaska, was corrupt as anything. And his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, isn't corrupt; she just is dumb. And --
COLMES: That was a kind word, Dick.
MORRIS: Yeah. And you have Ted Stevens, the other senator, who is certifiably corrupt. He's under indictment, and he deserves to go to jail for a long time, as does his son, by the way. Sarah Palin took that establishment on, challenged Murkowski in a primary fight, got the attorney general fired. She's probably the only governor in America that beat the incumbent governor of her own party in a primary fight over corruption. This woman is a heroine. And to have someone like that coming to Washington to clean up Washington is extraordinary. And we're not talking about she went after Democrats in a partisan way. She went after Republicans.