McCain aide cites 'failure of management'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/11/14/art.davis.gi.jpg caption="Davis managed McCain's campaign."](CNN) - Rick Davis, the campaign manager for former John McCain's White House bid, came to Sarah Palin's defense in an upcoming interview with the National Review, saying the now-infamous $150,000 clothing tab for the Alaska governor was caused by a "failure of management."
In the interview, set for publication next week, Davis notes Palin's appearance at the Republican convention came only days after she was named to the GOP ticket, and the Alaska governor had few clothes on hand that were appropriate for the event.
“We flew her out from Alaska to Arizona to Ohio to introduce her to the world and take control of her life. She didn’t think ‘dress for the convention’, because it might have just been a nice day trip to Arizona if she didn’t click with John. Very little prep had been done and if it had, we might have gotten picked off by the press. We were under incredible scrutiny."
"We were under incredible scrutiny," he added. "We got her a gal from New York and we thought, ‘Let’s get some clothes for her and the family.’ It was a failure of management not to get better control and track of that. "The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing, what it was worth or where it was going. No one knew how much that stuff was worth. It was more our responsibility than hers.”
News of the pricey tab caused a media firestorm days before the presidential election, and McCain aides appeared to blame Palin for the mishap, while the Alaska governor said she was forced to buy the clothes.
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First, the whole point of the article was that Palin did not buy the clothes herself - they were bought and then brought to her.
Second, one can hardly blame the failure of the election for the GOP on the failed principles and ideas of the GOP when John McCain has rarely, if ever, represented the policies of the GOP.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. If the republican Party is hanging their hat on Gov. Palin as the future of the Party, boy are they in trouble.
Enough already, Sarah! Go home! You said you would serve the people of Alaska, yet when have you had time during your "love me" campaign?
Has anyone noticed that Rick Davis looks like a duck-billed platypus?
McCain is too nice to have himself and his campaign manager blame themselves in order to support Palin's future career. But, we don't want her back. It's not just about the wardrobe, it's about her lack of knowledge and capacity, her lack of moral integrity and sly divisiveness and her small-town political views.
So now let me get this straight????? The Conservative right wing party, who are not only penny pinchers, but also are deathly affraid their taxes are being going to be raised , had the desire to make their VP candidate look good since she had very few clothes! So they stuck the Republican Party with over a $150,000 bill? Does anyone realize how many clothes that is - a plane belly full, right? GIVE ME A BREAK!! Does this guy and/or the Repubs really think we were just born yesterday? It will be a long, long time before many of us will EVER FORGET this clothes saga! I have to wonder whose going to pay for her clothes the second time around????? HA
@Donna – Where did you find the figure that Obama's campaign spent $600 Million on clothing? You cannot compare $150K in clothing to a higher figure in which clothing was a small percentage. Stop comparing apples to oranges.
What is wrong with you people? This woman said at the time all this came up that she was doing what she was told to do by McCain's staff. This verifies it. I think the man had big cojones coming forward with this. It should have shut you whiners and sour-grape people up. It's over, Davis fessed up. Obama's going to make the US the wimpiest county since Carter... Deal with it.
Unbelievable that she didn't think about what to wear–what woman doesn't think about how she looks especially for an important event? It is time to let it go, the Republicans lost.
"We flew her out from Alaska to Arizona to Ohio ... because it might have just been a nice day trip to Arizona if she didn't click with John."
Geez!! No wonder you lost the election. The operative words here are, "just a day trip if she didn't click with John." That is telling the world that John McCain only met and talked with Sarah Palin for the very first time when she arrived in Arizona. If she had been vetted, you would have seen all the baggage she was dragging with her. You deserve what you got!!
Well, all you jealous idiots – do you ever think positively about anything or anyone? All I read on CNN blogs are negative comments and mostly from Democrats. Stop and think about the messiah's wife and how shoddily she is always dressed!! She was advised, early on, that sleeveless clothes weren't appropriate for the TV, her position, etc. Did she listen? Hell no (and no surprise there!). That horrible, black/red whatever you call it dress she wore at her husband's acceptance, it was sleeveless as well! The little black sweater just didn't hide that fact! Can't wait to see her in a photo-op in the rose garden! (not!)
Lay off John. He's a great man.
So Obama won't spend campaign money on clothing to make him look good, but he's willing to spend millions on stage-craft to make him look good, and ethically that is ok?
Can some Obamanite please explain the difference to me?
So Palin was too stupid to realize that she couldn't wear her mooseskin dress to the Republican convention, so that's why they spent +$150,000 to dress her up. Please. Again, the GOP under-estimates the intelligence of voters. The purchase of these clothes, including Prada purses, took place over a period of time, and NOT before the convention. Palin fed at the trough of the RNC and was probably planning on keeping the clothes until the press got wind of her extravagance. And it's my understanding that some of those clothes went back to Alaska with her and that the RNC has had to dispatch an attorney to inventory them and bring them back. Lot of lying going on here.
What took this individual so long to come forward? Did someone "instruct" him to come to the defense of Gov Palin? If he had come forward immediately, then I could believe his story, but it is too late. I think he is trying to cover up the RNC's failure at picking someone that was not qualified or ready for the VP position.
Rick Davis = Loser
Thank God i voted for Obama. How so unready you guys were.
Forced to buy the clothes? $150,000+ worth of clothes? Did they put a gun to her head? Couldn't she have just smiled at the cashier and said, "Thanks but not thanks" to Neiman Marcus?
To be quite honest Im not so sure that many people really gave a crap about the whole deal. I think most Dems really weren't that caught up into it and probably wouldnt have made a fuss had it not been for all the crap they were throwing at Obama. I think it was pretty much tit for tat. I think she was entitled to having nice clothes afterall she has to represent, but it was a little excessive.
Wasn't Davis on "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids"?
Wow!!!! What an admission: Failure of management! Duh!!! The fact that it is admitted how quickly that ticket was put together is reason enough for the loss of the election! What a poor judgment call by McCain and the rest of the GOP campaign "management."
As for Sarah Palin, I still maintain she could have had some say over the cost and extent of her wardrobe; certainly a governor of a state has some formal clothes, and they could have been flown in. Also, her whole family didn't need an overhaul of that extent!
Thank God for the down-to-earth soon-to-be President and his family, as well as the new V.P. and his family!!!
I love it. Flew her down to meet one day, then ZOOM off to the convention without so much as a suit to wear! But no, Palin had been well vetted prior to signing her on to the ticket. Puh-lease. Keep that straight talk a'comin! Enough Palin for me she's become the Britney Spears of politics. Still gotta love how all the ultra conservatives ran like lemmings to her flag.
Rick "The Ugly Duck" Davis should ....Shut it up! He is just as patheic as Palin!
"SHE WAS FORCED TO BUY THE CLOTHES!" This gets funnier all the time. If you read (Democrats do Republicans don't) the European papers and listen to the news items from Australia and elsewhere you will discover that the entire world is laughing hysterically at this woman. Worse the entire world is laughing at the stupid American voter who thinks she is really wonderful and would make a great president. John McCain must be senile.
And let's not forget, there was probably a full moon as well.
I still find it funny and sad that people think McCain is Bush. Get over it people it was a well ran campaign Obama did and you blinded yourself into every rhetoric he said that you've lost your objectivity.
Everything here in this story is nothing new and if anything it should vidicate all you people who are attacking Palin of the cost of the clothes. Pathetic how petty people are. I see how most of you guys are going to help Unite this country. GJ blind lemmings.
The Obama campaign did spend $600M... NOT on Michelle's clothes! I really don't want to hear about this gal anymore!