Quayle: Palin Furor 'Sounded Familiar'

Sarah Palin’s entrance into the election campaign seems like déjà vu to Dan Quayle, who played that part for the Republicans in 1988. Like Palin, he was supposed to connect an old moderate to the party base and win over the Midwest with small-town charm. And like Palin, he got a face-full of negative press. “It sure sounded familiar,” Quayle told the Los Angeles Times.

Quayle was a veteran compared to Palin, with 12 years in Congress, but like Palin he was unexpectedly pulled from obscurity, unprepared for a storm of negative stories. “Normally, you build up and then tear down,” says Quayle. “I never got the buildup.” But Quayle isn’t bitter, and has some advice for Palin. “Just be yourself,” he says. “He wanted you and you are there.” (More Dan Quayle stories.)