Steve Schmidt: Palin as President 'Frightens Me'

Steve Schmidt, the former John McCain campaign strategist portrayed by Woody Harrelson in HBO's Game Change, pulled no punches when describing his reaction to the book on MSNBC this morning. "I think it was very accurate. For all of us in the campaign, it really rang true. It gave you a little bit of PTSD at times," he said, before going on to add that Sarah Palin was "not prepared" to potentially assume the presidency when the campaign chose her as the VP candidate, and that the very "notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly."

"Politically, she was a net positive to the campaign," Schmidt said, but she was "a net negative in the sense that someone was nominated to the vice presidency who was manifestly unprepared to take the oath of office should it become necessary. And as it has become necessary many times in America." Schmidt, who said many times during the interview that he was troubled when looking back at the decision, added that he hopes Palin does not become a leader in the Republican party. "If you look at, over the last four years, all of the deficiencies in knowledge, all the deficiencies in preparedness," he said, "she's done not one thing to rectify them, to correct them." Hat tip to Mediaite for the find. (More Game Change stories.)