A top adviser to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign said Monday that Republicans' enthusiasm for the newly named vice presidential pick Paul Ryan echoed the fervor that met Sarah Palin when she was selected by Sen. John McCain in 2008 to join the GOP ticket.
"There's no doubt that I think the appointment thrilled the base of the Republican party, the tea party Republicans, the social conservatives. Because Congressman Ryan is a certifiable right winger," David Axelrod said on CBS Monday.
"I saw that excitement four years ago when John McCain appointed Sarah Palin as well," Axelrod continued. "There were huge crowds, much of the same kind of reaction. I don't think it worked out very well. When the reality catches up with the moment, it's not going to be a plus for Gov. Romney."
Palin herself had little to say to her 2012 counterpart in a statement Sunday, released nearly twelve hours after Mitt Romney made his running mate announcement.
"Congratulations to Mitt Romney on his choice of Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate," Palin wrote in the statement, which mentioned Romney's name only four times and Ryan's name only three out of over 1,100 words. The statement was posted on her Facebook page.
Palin - then largely unknown outside of her home state of Alaska -- was named to the GOP ticket in August 2008. While met initially with adoring crowds, she subsequently stumbled in interviews and on the stump.
On Sunday, Axelrod hammered Ryan as a "right wing ideologue" on CNN's "State of the Union," telling Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley that his ideas on the budget and social issues were well outside the American mainstream.
"He's quite extreme. A good person, a genial person, but his views are quite harsh," Axelrod said.
Comments