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ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.
Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.
Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.
With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain’s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months.
Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.
But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.
Originally posted by Multiple Junkie
reply to post by mental modulator
It appeared to be knee jerk from the get go. My theory is that McCain went with Palin for a shot at those Hillary votes because the campaign misread the media hype about Democratic Party disunity and went for those votes. For the most part the Democratic Party kissed and made up and those votes were not up for grabs after the convention.
McCain had better watch his back because just like in 2000 someone is out to get him and that's a shame because he ran an honorable campaign back then, but he picked up a few dirty tricks from that fight. Scary to think that the ones who are trying to take down Palin (and McCain) are probably from within his party.
Oh and I have a theory that the GOP is going to take a reform stance to stand in contrast to "CHANGE". Unfortunate for them, this will require MASTERFUL execution to pull of. I am not sure Mccain is sly enough to play the role we will need to.
Coupled with the fact that REFORM movements are traditionally liberal platforms (such as Obama's)
I for one have been watching FOX news and I believe they are actually guiding his campaign for him. It seems all the positive spin in his favor is coming directly from the station not his campaign.
Originally posted by Multiple Junkie
reply to post by mental modulator
I don't agree with you on this though,I think Fox gets its cue from the party and they return the favor by granting those exclusive interviews with the executive branch as well as hiring the ones that can't get a job with a think tank or another administration. No doubt that they follow talking points. So far they have not put up a decent defense for McCain following the Palin scandals because the campaign is treading water with this and don't have time to go on the offense because its all defense right now. I watch a lot of Fox News.
Originally posted by Icarus Rising
Yeah, I think we all know that McCain has a habit of shooting from the hip. It is important when doing so to take the pistol out of its holster first to avoid shooting oneself in the foot.
My first thought on hearing Mrs. Palin was to be his VP candidate was: desperation pick. Such a move is generally made in haste and is prone to backfiring horribly. Time will tell if that is the case here. So far it doesn't look too good.
Republican John McCain said Tuesday he's satisfied that Sarah Palin's background was properly checked out before the Alaska governor joined the Republican ticket.
"The vetting process was completely thorough and I'm grateful for the results," McCain told reporters as he toured a Philadelphia fire house.
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager and the person at the point of the vice presidential process, said there was no abrupt change of course in the final hours. Nor, he said, was Palin selected without having gone through the full vetting process that was done for other finalists. That process included reviews of financial and other personal data, an FBI background check and considerable discussion among the handful of McCain advisers involved in the deliberations.
"Nobody was vetted less or more than anyone in the final stages, and John had access to all that information and made the decision," Davis said. "It's really not much more complicated than that."
Although The Washington Post quoted advisers to Mr. McCain on Sunday as saying Ms. Palin had been subjected to an F.B.I. background check, an F.B.I. official said Monday the bureau did not vet potential candidates and had not known of her selection until it was made public.
Although The Washington Post quoted advisers to Mr. McCain on Sunday as saying Ms. Palin had been subjected to an F.B.I. background check, an F.B.I. official said Monday the bureau did not vet potential candidates and had not known of her selection until it was made public.
With time running out, and after a long meeting with his inner circle in Phoenix, Mr. McCain finally picked up the phone last Sunday and reached Ms. Palin at the Alaska State Fair. Although the campaign’s polling on Mr. McCain’s potential running mates was inconclusive on the selection of Ms. Palin — virtually no one had heard of her, a McCain adviser said — the governor, who opposes abortion, had glowing reviews from influential social conservatives..
]
After Mr. McCain contacted Ms. Palin, Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Salter met with her on Wednesday in Flagstaff, Ariz. It was not until the following morning that she traveled to Sedona to meet with Mr. McCain, who then sat down with her for his only interview of a potential running mate.
At 11 a.m. on Thursday, at the McCain vacation compound near Sedona, Ariz., Mr. McCain invited Ms. Palin to join him on the ticket. He hardly knew her, and she had virtually no foreign policy experience, but Ms. Palin was a “kindred spirit,” a McCain adviser said. Mr. McCain was betting, the adviser said, that she would help him reclaim the mantle of maverick that he had lost this year.
Originally posted by pluckynoonez
Of coarse she was!
Next question.