If Sarah Palin is her party’s nominee for president in 2012 it will be a “catastrophic election” for the GOP, Sen. John McCain’s 2008 campaign manager predicted on Friday.

Longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt — who ran McCain’s campaign and played a role in picking Palin as the senator’s running mate — offered a scathing assessment of the former Alaska governor’s political trajectory.

“I think that she has talent,” Schmidt said, “but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012.”

“She is someone who has a passionate base that constitutes millions of Americans,” Schmidt said. “But in the year since the election has ended, she has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond that base into the middle of the electorate where elections are decided.”

Most of the GOP already understands that Sarah Palin is a conservative leader who is in the arena for the long term. Now, whether Palin will seek or will receive the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012 is pure speculation.

Sarah’s polling numbers of favorable vs. unfavorable and in potential match-ups with Romney, Huckabee and Pawlenty are mixed at best. She understands her political rehabilitation after the most relentless personal attacks in political history will take some time.

However, the GOP REALLY doesn’t need Steve Schmidt to constantly harp on the anti-Palin theme.