Republican strategist Ralph Reed tells Newsmax that the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has been a “B-12 shot” into the Republican base — and says Barack Obama partisans have "hijacked" the so-called Troopergate controversy.
Newsmax’s Ashley Martella cited the most recent Gallup tracking poll that had McCain in a dead heat with Obama and asked Reed if the Sarah Palin "bounce" was over.
Reed — former executive director of the Christian Coalition — said the selection of Palin “completely refigured this race. But I think now that both conventions are over … this race is where I always expected it to be. It’s very even, hard fought, extremely competitive nationally.”
Martella asked Reed what he thought of the McCain campaign’s handling of the Troopergate controversy — the probe into whether Alaska Gov. Palin was proper in firing a law enforcement official who failed to dismiss a trooper who went through a rancorous divorce with Palin’s sister.
“I think the McCain campaign is handling it exactly right,” Reed said.
“They’ve made it very clear that this inquiry, which originally started out as a bipartisan examination … has now been hijacked by Obama partisans, including the chief investigator and one of the legislators, who gave a radio interview and suggested that this investigation was a preliminary step to impeaching Governor Palin.
“The facts are very clear now as a result of e-mails that have been released by the governor’s office, that this was a budgetary dispute, it was a personnel matter.”
Reed added: “Sarah Palin has been able to achieve an extraordinary electricity and energy among social conservative grass roots.”
Her selection “has put a B-12 shot directly into the base of the Republican Party, and closed the intensity gap and the turnout gap.”
VIDEO: Ralph Reed Interview on Sarah Palin and 'Troopergate'
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