Is the McCain/Palin ticket in danger of suffering the political version of death by a thousand cuts ?
Given how the four days since the announcement was made have gone, it’s certainly possible that might be the case.
Almost as soon as John McCain introduced Sarah Palin in Dayton, Ohio on Friday, the questions began to be raised about her experience and fitness to assume the office of the Presidency (which is the only reason the Vice-Presidency exists, after all). Then, it became clear that McCain was wrong, and Palin lied during her speech in Dayton, when he said that she opposed the infamous Bridge-to-Nowhere. Next, we learned that she backed teaching so-called creation science, was a 1996 supporter of Pat Buchanan, and once belonged to a political party that argues for the secession of Alaska from the Union. Then, finally, of course, we had the revelation yesterday that Palin’s teenage daughter was pregnant.
Taken by themselves, these stories don’t necessarily add up to anything, Taken together, though, they could be damaging to both Palin’s credibility and McCain’s political fortunes, especially if this is just the beginning of what America learns about Sarah Palin.
Understandably, then, people are beginning to wonder just how well the McCain Campaign vetted Sarah Palin before her selection was announced:
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.
On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.
Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.
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.
Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom.
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell said much the same thing yesterday afternoon.
They’re just now sending people to Alaska to look into her background ? Isn’t that something that should have been done before she was even named as McCain’s running mate ? The McCain Campaign claimed today that there are no other surprises to come from Palin, but if they’re just starting to look into her background, how can they know that for sure ?
Not surprisingly, these revelations have gotten a lot of play in the political blogosphere.
John Marshall notes that what really matters here isn’t Sarah Palin, but John McCain:
Individually, you can come to your own judgment about how consequential these stories are. What they show pretty clearly now — in addition to the news that the McCain campaign is only now sending in a vetting team — is that John McCain didn’t do any serious vetting of Palin before he invited her to join his ticket and, he hopes, become Vice President of the United States.
Fundamentally, of course, this is about John McCain. And the real issue here is what this slapdash decision says about his judgment.
Andrew Sullivan agrees:
The salient political issues of the Palin pick are two-fold: Can Palin be trusted to tell the truth? And how competent is a campaign that picks a candidate without any serious vetting of stuff that can appear on the Internet within a few hours of the news? We need to refocus on those core questions. I fear the answers are: we can’t trust Palin to tell the truth; and the manner of McCain’s pick demonstrates some of the most grotesque incompetence in modern political history.
And, James Joyner thinks that the McCain Campaign may have messed up by going for the headline without thinking the VP pick through:
It sounds like, at a minimum, Team McCain valued maximum surprise and buzz from the announcement more than thorough vetting. Similarly, they seemed determined to avoid further annoying social conservatives, given that pro-choicers Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge were clearly McCain’s preferred running mates.
And, Marc Ambinder notes the following:
The McCain campaign makes A.B. Culvahouse available to the AP’s Liz Sidoti to detail the campaign’s vetting of Gov. Sarah Palin. All well and good.
The question isn’t whether Palin was subjected to and passed a legal vet — she did, apparently — it’s whether anyone with political judgment supervised the vet or whether anyone with an opposition research background performed an open source political vet from the point of view of an opponent.
(…)
To the extent that the campaign is going to have a problem with Palin, it won’t be — or, it won’t principally be — because of Bristol Palin. It’ll be because of politics and political questions.
Finally, Justin Gardner points out the contrast between the running mate selections of the major party candidates:
[B]e wary about Obama and his experience all you want, but he has talked consistently about the idea that he has the judgement to lead the country and that same judgement led him to choose Joe Biden as the person who’s a heartbeat away. And as far as I can see so far, Biden has proven to be a very serious pick that filled in a perceived experience gap Obama had in the foreign policy column.
On the other hand, McCain picks a little unknown Governor from Alaska who seems like she’s ill prepared for the international spotlight given all of these stories that have started to pop up about her, not the least of which is this latest news that she wasn’t just cozy with a secessionist group…she was a member. I mean, how could McCain not have known about that?
And, more importantly, what does it mean if he didn’t know, didn’t bother to find out, and made the decision anyway ?
Selecting a Vice-Presidential running mate is one of the first decisions that a Presidential candidate makes that gives voters an insight into their decision making process and their judgment. In Barack Obama’s case, it’s fairly clear that he passed that test when he picked Joe Biden. When it comes to McCain’s selection of Palin, though, the jury is still out and, at the very least, it’s looking like this decision was made in haste for political reasons that had little to do with whether or not Sarah Palin was the right person for the job. If the public decides that that says something about John McCain’s judgment, he could be in trouble.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Obama’s twisted logic that merely running for office provides him with the qualifications, experience and credentials to perform in that office, is as laughable as his twisted logic that a whirlwind 9 day, six country, overseas photo op qualifies him as an expert on foreign policy. Obama is an empty suit who is obviously trying to create the illusion that he is something that he is not. If its a choice between an experienced mayor and Governor, with an approval rating of 80% for V.P. versus. a community organizer, and junior senator, who spent most of his time in office running for President … I choose Palin. No Wright, no Farrakahn, no Ayers, no Rezko, no mean Michelle, NOBAMA
P.S. It’s also hunorous how the media is now asking McCain if he vetted Palin, when the media totally dropped the ball in vetting Obama … that’s why we found out after the fact about Wright, Rezko, Ayers, and the rest of the nut jobs closely associated with Obama.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:41 am
I am not a McCain or Obama supporter however, I think that what the MSM is doing to Palin is inconceivable. I thought it interesting that Angria Mitchell and Andrew Sullivan’s remarks were quoted in this article. Sullivan called for all of the medical records and wanted to talk to the doctor who delivered Trig Palin, in his quest to prove that Trig was not Sarah’s but rather Bristols??? As far as Troopergate- would you taser your 10 year old son because he wanted to try it? Where is the judgement and maturity there, especially from a State Trooper? I don’t buy or believe almost anything that the media has said about Palin or for that matter about almost anything. The media wants Obama to become president and they will make sure that happens. David Axelrod has been with Obama since his days in Chicago and has proven himself to be one of the lowest and sleaziest scumbags running any campaign. He I believe helped Obama remove any competition when he was running for Senator. Read The Case Against Obama by David Freddoso and you can see just how typical Chicago politics goes. His campaign is using the same dirty rotten tactics in his run for the Presidency. For one, just pay everyone off- money talks!
Doug- You have said that you were planning to vote for Barr in this election cycle. What vetting has been done on him? Or do 3rd party candidates not need the scrutiny that the R’s or D’s must go through. I looked at Barr and decided that, while he would be better than Obama or McCain (maybe), he also has some serious skeletons. For one I couldn’t back someone who joined in with the ACLU when he left the Senate. He was involved with the CIA in his past experience. And to hear the whipped cream lickin’ story makes me question his judgment. That seems very Clintonesque to me.
As the poster said above, how well was Obama vetted, and how many more stories are going to come out about him? I consider Obamas close associations to be much more damning than Bristol Palins pregnancy.
As I said above, I do not believe anything that the media prints or says. The next “rumor” you will hear is that a newspaper in Alaska is coming out with a story about an affair that Sarah Palin had with a staffer. That is already out there in the blogsphere, just as the story that Bristol was the mother of Trig. The person who started the rumor about Trig blogged on the DailyKooks. His name is out there along with his home address, his email address and his home and real estate office phone numbers. I hope he is hounded mercilesly.
So far Chuck Baldwin seems to be the safest choice but of course, he has no experience at all!
What a freakin’ election season!!!!!!!!!!
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 am
[...] of that criticism, such that the issues that relate to her qualifications and the question of whether the McCain campaign properly vetted Palin before announcing the selection, has been, I would submit justified — it’s only natural that questions like these would [...]
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 am
[...] of that criticism, such that the issues that relate to her qualifications and the question of whether the McCain campaign properly vetted Palin before announcing the selection, has been, I would submit justified — it’s only natural that questions like these would [...]
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
Sandy,
Barr joined the ACLU primarily because of their stand against the PATRIOT Act, which he supported when in Congress but quickly came to realize was being over-used by the Bush Administration.
And, frankly, as a libertarian, there’s little about what the ACLU does that bothers me. As a well-known politician once said, extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:13 am
[...] Sarah Palin, they’ve also told us something about John McCain and his judgment, as I noted when this whole saga began: Selecting a Vice-Presidential running mate is one of the first decisions that a Presidential [...]
October 11th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I can not beleive she was vetted in any serious way. I believe it was a “Shock and Awe”. Shock he chose a woman, Awe she is very pretty and comes across as homebaked apple pie on the Thanksgiving Table, when in fact, looking into her service in Alaska, she is Bitter Apple Cider.
2007 when asked about the War in Iraq, she answered with she had not had time to really look at the war but she heard on the news more deployments coming and even though she supported the administration she wanted an exit plan. Oh really? Not what McCain said or the Generals downrange. Stay til job done. This would have been a bone of contention I think.
As Mayor of Wasilla she left the town in 2002 with 20 million debt. That is not very good economic policy as I see it. No Romney here. Is not economics an area McCain says he is not strong in? So how she gonna help?
In 1998 she asked her managerial staff to resign to show their loyalty to her administration. What is that? This is a grown responsible leader? Or is she back in the high school era where the “Click” speaks?
In 2007 she ILLEGALLY put a 150 dollar bounty on wolves to inspire her state sanctioned airborne wolf hunters to up their kills. She wanted them to present the front forepaws to collect the bounty. This was stopped by the Alaska State Court Alaska Wildlife Alliance. She allowed them to pull mother wolves and pups out of their dens and slaughter them. When discovered she did a cover-up. No less may I call ya Joe, smile, wink. She allowed the killing of black bear sows and their cubs, first time in Alaska. Natives not really happy with this woman.
In 8/29/08 Business Week Palin said: “We are a nation at war and in many ways the reasons for war are fights over energy sources.” Hummm well I don’t know about any of you but I am paying out the kazoo at the gas pump. Isn’t this also what the other side is saying?
She has a history of not speaking to reporters or allowing her staff to do so. She hired many high school friends to her administration who had questionable qualifications for the positions. She sold the plane not on E-Bay but to a man who had given a huge fundraiser for her. She attempted to put one Tom Humal also a fundraiser into a position and an Ethics Complaint was filed to stop it. She replaced the “Good Ole Boys” with a “Good Ole Girl”. She was a member along with her husband of the Independant Party. She called Ron Paul Cool and intends to call her husband First Dude instead of First Gentleman. She lost the nomination for Lt Govenor then played with the Big Boys trumped up support and intended to pay back the favors.
This woman is not ready to be VP and most assuredly, being as her understanding of Foreign Policy comes from the nearness of Russia and Canada to her state, not to EVER BE COMMANDER AND CHIEF.
I am disgusted and I am angry that I must vote for McCain, in all honesty I have studied Obama and I would never vote for him. I see him as a serious threat to our country and it’s future. I will vote for McCain holding my nose, then pray he lives 4 more years. I then intend to do everything I can to make sure Palin NEVER gets near the White House again. When first asked if she would accept the VP she said It depends on what the VP does. She has since learned she can Preside over the Senate and fully intends to do so. Oh joy. McCain has his hands full.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
[...] the Palin pick, what is most apparent is the fact that, as I suspected, the vetting process was almost non-existent: On Sunday, Aug. 24, Schmidt and a few other senior [...]