Video Ben Stein – Republican – Nixon Speech Writer – Sarah Palin Oddest Choice in History of Presidential Politics

Transcript provided – “She should have Henry Kissinger babysitting her.”

BEN STEIN, AUTHOR, FMR. NIXON SPEECHWRITER: Thank you so much.

O’BRIEN: My pleasure.

You have been a speech writer and a lawyer for President Nixon. Let’s talk first about Governor Palin’s speech. What do you think she needs to get across? And as a speech writer yourself, how do you navigate some of those tricky things, the controversy, with specifics that some people said they want to hear?

STEIN: I don’t think she has to do much. I think as one of your previous guests said, expectations are so low, if she basically can put one word in front of the other, people will be impressed. I don’t think anybody is going to be picking on her about her daughter, I don’t think anybody is going to be picking on her about a 22-year-old DUI for her husband. People want to know if she is a down to earth, pro-family, pro-life conservative. And I’m sure she’ll hit that one right out of the park.

I’ve met her. I’ve had a long, long, long conversation with her. She’s a fireball of a speaker and I’m sure she’ll do very well.

O’BRIEN: How about America’s energy economy? Talking economy with you today.

STEIN: Well, we —

O’BRIEN: Yes, go ahead.

STEIN: We’ve got some real problems with the economy. I mean, the economy is really a very serious problem. We’re not in a recession. But real (ph) wages in this country have not risen in 35 years under Republicans and Democrats. They have not risen. They are lower now than they were in 1973.

I’m told by people who know these kinds of things, that if you made all the banks in this country strictly accountable for their losses, most of the banks in this country would be insolvent right now. The real estate sector is in trouble, the auto sector is in deep, deep trouble, the retail sector is wavering, the finance sector is in real trouble. This administration has really got to get up off its back side and take some action, especially about the finance sector, right now.

O’BRIEN: What do you see in Governor Palin, or do you see anything in Governor Palin, that maybe she —

STEIN: I don’t see a thing about —

O’BRIEN: Yes, go ahead.

STEIN: I don’t think she has said a word in her whole life about the national economy, which contributes to making this one of the oddest choices in the history of presidential politics. I think this may go down as the most peculiar vice presidential choice there has ever been.

O’BRIEN: Well, expound on that a little more for me, because if I were a Republican strategist standing here, I would say, she’s got five kids, a woman who has managed — has executive experience. You know the drill. You’ve heard them around the clock coming on to talk about that. So what makes it odd for you?

STEIN: Look, they were selling themselves as the team, the ticket of experience. That’s out the window. They’re selling themselves as the ticket of steady habits. That’s out the window. They’re selling them as the ticket of people who are ready to deal with America in a foreign policy crisis. That’s out the window.

What we have now is back to, what you might call, fundamentalists, born again, backwoods, values of the United States of America. That’s fine. I love those values. I’m all for them. I believe in intelligent design, which I’m probably the only person ever to be on CNN who believes in that. But let us be fair about this, she’s a very different person from what John McCain was advertising himself as.

And in terms of the economy, as far as I know, she has absolutely zero background in it. That’s fine, neither did John F. Kennedy. But somebody’s got to get in there and fill her in on it really quick.

O’BRIEN: Is that doable? Again, back to the speech writing thing, which is how we began, that’s lot to learn before —

STEIN: It’s doable. It’s a lot to learn. It’s a lot to learn before a presidential campaign where you’re going to have people, very smart people, from the media picking her apart little bit by little bit.

She’s got to have around her very, very smart people, telling her the basics of the economy, telling her the basics of foreign policy, night and day. She’s going to have to be like that business in the “Superman” movie where the little super baby was traveling through space and they’re giving him a tape of all the knowledge in the world for him to absorb. She’s going to have to have people like Martin Feldstein (ph) from Harvard, probably the best Republican in Congress and America, around her every second drilling in her head what she has to know.

O’BRIEN: A lot to learn.

STEIN: She should have Henry Kissinger babysitting her. O’BRIEN: Well — duly noted.

Ben Stein, thank you. Appreciate the time.

We’re going to have more convention —

STEIN: Thank you.