Spartan 117:
To date, there is not one single GOP official in Alaska that can recall being asked about Governor Palin.
Google searches and one interview by Culverhouse is a “thorough vetting”? Especially for a woman McCain met with exactly once before offering the job? You don’t actually go and talk to the people she worked with during the course of her political career?
Then again, if you did that, someone might figure out what’s going on, alert the media, and then you don’t get the “shock the world” moment you think you need to upstage Obama’s speech. Secrecy took precedence over actually getting the job done right.
This isn’t about Palin. It’s about the judgement used in her selection.
Great post. It avoids the partisan hackery of the Left and Right which goes between Palin as an immoral, inexperienced cretin to the ones that say she is a female Goddess of near-omnipotent Presidential capacity.
Both Parties sometimes vet so badly that you wonder if they have ever had an executive search consultant ever included on their teams of hack lawyers doing the “investigating”. Republicans also have a bad tendency to blow off trouble spots if they get all enthusatic about a “brilluant tactical move”. As when they parachuted the deranged Alan Keyes into Illinois from Maryland to run against Obama because he was black, conservative, square with Jesus and a surefire winner…Or Harriet Miers.
1. Spartans observation that no top Alaskan GOP Party leader was consulted that is saying so, is troubling.
2. One sign the vetting wasn’t thorough was how McCain came out and said on what his people told him about Palin, she was the courageous hunter-momma that was the maverick in opposing the “Bridge to Nowhere” – when it turns out she WANTED that bridge and fought for it and only when it became a national stink did she change to “no bridge, but we demand to keep the money anyways”.
And it turns out she travelled to DC as mayor of Wasilia and was trotted around by Young and Ted Stevens to use her photogenic self to pitch for other Alaskan earmarks.
3. McCain appeared to make his selection based on what his “inner circle” advisors said and a 15-minute conversation back in February, the only one he had with Palin before basically selecting her and flying her into Arizona for a staffer “finish-up interview” then the McCain “job offer interview”.
4. Revelation that Cindy McCain was a principal in the VP selection “inner circle” is a bit worrying. If she is going to be a traditional Laura Bush type and uninvolved, then she doesn’t get herself into heavy scrutiny. If she wants to be Hillary-like or be like “Senior Policy Advisor” Michelle Obama with a position, staff, and reporting staff – then she has to be ready for her life to be opened up.
5. It does sound like “security for keeping the Grand Surprise intact” did seriously affect the depth of research the McCain VP vetting team did, and possibly set up a situation where they didn’t do the job right. Afraid to find out anything Palin did or said as mayor or city council member from her local newspaper records because looking would alert reporters and “people would then know we were looking at her”????????
But her name was already floating about as certain Republicans eager to play identity politics were screaming for their favorite black or female Republican.
Not afraid to be known to be looking at Pawlentey’s high school days, but too wary of the “briliance of the Palin surprise” that they didn’t check her days as mayor??
6. I don’t want Obama, but in his life, McCain has done many stupid things. Or reckless and impulsive things. Always pulling out his “I suffered as a POW and I’m a patriot!” card – which generally works in the Republican ranks led to think that all military and uniformed government security workers are all to be worshipped unquestioningly as “heroes”.
Or backstabbed other Republicans who thought they had a committment from McCain only to see him and amigo Lindsay Graham hugging Schumer or Teddy or Joe Lieberman announcing a “bold bipartisan 3rd way”. And when confronted, McCain has very often had no logical explaination to justify getting in bed with Democrats on an issue other than “it was a gut call”.
Well, Palin is his call, his judgment. And while I don’t think Palin is damaged goods, if there are 4-5 more items of undisclosed (or unknown to McCain) Palin baggage that come out – it is all on McCain’s judgment and executive management abilities.
