Remember when Sarah Palin was by far the most bizarre character in modern politics? Those were simpler times.
When Palin came on the scene as John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election, the former governor of Alaska behaved like a caricature of herself, and was consequently treated as such by the media. (Who could forget Tina Fey’s spot-on impression of Palin on SNL?)
Recently, McCain opened up about choosing Palin as his running mate and seemed to express a perfectly understandable amount of regret.
In the senator’s upcoming biography, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations, McCain describes how he was initially considering Joe Lieberman for the vice president post. However, because Lieberman was a longtime member of the Democratic Party, McCain’s advisors told him that it would be a bad idea.
“It was sound advice that I could reason for myself,” McCain writes. “But my gut told me to ignore it and I wish I had.”
Speaking in an interview for an upcoming HBO documentary on his life, McCain describes the decision to do away with Lieberman as a running mate as “another mistake that I made.”
In his book, McCain admits that Palin was “a popular, energetic and accomplished reformer.” However, he concedes that there were also problems with having her on the ballot.
“She stumbled in some interviews and had a few misjudgments in the glare of the ceaseless spotlight,” McCain recalls with admirable tact. “Those missteps too are on me. She didn’t put herself on the ticket. I did.”
Considering Palin is known for spouting off such cringe-worthy sound bites as “We say keep your change, we’ll keep our God, our guns, our constitution,” it’s perhaps charitable for McCain to describe her gaffes as “a few misjudgments.”
Following Barack Obama’s win in the 2008 election, Palin resigned as the governor of Alaska, but still fought tooth and nail to remain in the public eye. She called Obama’s healthcare plan a “death panel” (thereby coining the unfortunate term), and many believe that her anti-intellectualism paved the way for Donald Trump.
Embarrassingly enough, she now spends her time shilling “skinny tea” on Instagram.
McCain’s book is expected for release later this month.