Dick Cheney Seeks to Clarify Sarah Palin ‘Mistake’ Remark
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ABC/Taylor Glenn(WASHINGTON) — In an interview that aired Monday night on Fox News, former Vice President Dick Cheney tried to clarify what he told ABC News 10 days ago about Sarah Palin.
In that interview, Cheney said John McCain’s decision to pick Palin as his running mate was “a mistake” because, he said, Palin did not pass the test of being ready to be president.
“I like Governor Palin. I’ve met her. I know her. She is an attractive candidate. But based on her background — she’d only been governor for, what, two years — I don’t think she passed that test,” Cheney told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Jonathan Karl.
“Of being ready?” Karl asked.
“Of being ready to take over,” Cheney replied. “And I think that was a mistake.”
Now, Cheney tells Sean Hannity he was talking about the “process” McCain went through in choosing a running mate.
“It wasn’t aimed so much at Gov. Palin as it was against the basic process that McCain used,” Cheney said. “My point basically dealt with the process in terms of that basic requirement, is this person prepared to step in to be president of the United States when they’re picked? And it was my judgment — I was asked if I thought the McCain process in ’08 had been well done or was it a mistake, and I said I thought it was a mistake. That’s not…meant so much as a criticism of Gov. Palin as it is that I just thought it was not — the process didn’t meet the standards I would like to see our candidate pursue when they pick a — a running mate.”
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