Steve Schmidt Conscience Of The Republican Party
Steve grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey as a kind of all American boy — Eagle Scout, senior class vice president, an all around popular kid who was voted most likely to succeed. While attending the University of Delaware he was a political science major, but unfortunately left college three credits short of graduating.
His involvement in politics reached a high point when he became a senior strategist for Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. His biggest challenge in that canvass was trying to salvage the mess that was created when others brought Alaska Governor Sara Palin on board as McCain’s vice presidential running mate, those responsible for picking her having failed to thoroughly vet her.
In the HBO movie “Game Change” Woody Harrelson played the part of Mr. Schmidt, a standup, no nonsense Republican moderate, though he might prefer to think of himself as a conservative. In the movie Schmidt and the empty headed but strong willed Palin were constantly at odds. Much like our current president Sara was something of a lose cannon who was hard to keep on script, often acting as if she and not McCain was the top of the ticket.
As the movie reveals, Sara was a know it all, know-nothing airhead. Steve who is particularly well versed in American history and a strong believer in the nations higher ideals made a valiant effort to bring some substance to Sara, but in the end all he could do was try and minimize her extremist views.
Today Steve is a political commentator and Republican partisan trying to save his party from the ravages of Donald Trump. He has made no bones about the fact that party luminaries need to stand up against Trump’s alt-right leanings, pushing the idea that country comes before party. As himself a man of conscience, Steve is demanding that his party take a moral stand against President Trump’s xenophobic utterances and acts. Not only does Steve condemn Trump for what he implies but he condemns him for the reprehensible person that he exhibits. Steve Schmidt might be the Republican Party’s last best hope — its conscience.
