Palin Aide Feared VP Debate Would Be “Debacle Of Historic And Epic Proportions”

A new book by political reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, details how close the debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden came to being a wipe-out.

McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt (right) said Palin’s opening line, “Hey, can I call you Joe,” was suggested after she repeatedly got his name wrong in practice sessions, referring to him as “O’Biden.”

He said he had been warned by a campaign staffer that Palin was doing very poorly in her preparation.

“He told us the debate was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions. … She was not focused … not engaged,” Schmidt told [Anderson] Cooper. “She was not really participating in the prep.”

Among other revelations:

…when the president-elect called [Hillary Clinton] a second time to persuade her to be his secretary of state, after being turned down the first time, Clinton told him there was a problem.

“At that point she says, ‘There’s one last thing that’s a problem, which is my husband,” Heilemann said. “‘You’ve seen what this is like; it will be a circus if I take this job.’”

The interview about the book airs Sunday on “60 Minutes.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.