Obama stumbles out of the gate with initial reaction to Palin nomination.

From ABC News’ Jake Tapper.

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” said Obama spox Bill Burton. “Gov. Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil, and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same.”

Republicans say it’s noteworthy that, on the week commemorating the 88th anniversary of women getting the right to vote — with McCain, making a groundbreaking VP pick — the Obama campaign’s first response was to attack, not congratulate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, or acknowledge the historic nature of her selection.

It was just yesterday that McCain ran a TV ad congratulating Obama on his historic achievement.

Upon further reflection, Sens. Obama and Biden issued a more carefully considered response:

“We send our congratulations to Gov. Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the Republican nominee for vice president,” said the Democratic ticket in a joint statement. “It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics.  While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward, Gov. Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign.”

The first response Republicans had to the Biden pick, of course, was to attack Obama with Biden’s words. Then again, there’s nothing particularly historic about picking a white male senator as your running mate.

The a follow-up post.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was just now asked about the conflicting statements from his campaign on Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate — first, an attack by a spokesman, then a congratulatory statement by Obama and running mate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

“I think that, you know, campaigns start getting these hair triggers,” Obama said at Pennsylvania Biodiesel Inc. in Monaca, Pa. “The statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments.”

The only reason that Obama backtracked from the earlier statement was that he was being skewered by conservatives for his attack on Palin and made it look like he was anti-woman.

Now here is the Clinton statement.

“We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”

I guess that’s an endorsemnt of Obama-Biden.

 

 

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