Steve Schmidt, McCain’s campaign manager, doesn’t think a Palin nomination would be a good thing for the 2012 election.

“I think that she has talents,” Steve Schmidt, the former campaign manager of McCain’s failed presidential bid, told CNN’s John King. “But my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012, and in fact, were she the nominee, we could have a catastrophic election result.”

The comments came during The Atlantic Magazine’s First Draft of History Conferece, held at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

“I don’t think it’s inconceivable that she could be the Republican nominee for President of the United States,” added Schmidt — who, among others in the McCain campaign, butted heads behind the scenes with Palin in the weeks leading up to Election Day. “I do think it’s fairly inconceivable that she could be elected President of the United States.”

Ya think? We’ve seen the Republicans implode before (I honestly think if they had any sense, we would have a President Romney right now); they might just do it again. She isn’t Reagan. So get it out of your heads that she’s a viable candidate. Maybe a very nice person, maybe very smart, but she will not be President.