For the past two days, Republican pundits have been delighted at the prospect of the Obama / Biden team attacking Sarah Palin, because they believe that every sound argument that Obama can make against Palin has the potential to boomerang or generate female sympathy. But now we're getting a full understanding of how she was picked, and we are provided a damning indictment not of Palin, but of McCain. Follow down...
Today there are two stories out in the NYT and WaPo about the vetting process. When combined with an Anchorage Daily News article from Friday on the choice, you can really get a full picture of how this came to be. (Yes, some of these facts are repeats from other diaries, but I haven't seen anything yet that puts these together.)
-- McCain met Palin in person twice - once in February for 15 minutes, and the second time the day he offered her the position. As the NYT article says:
Within hours if not minutes after the interview was concluded, Ms. Palin had the job.
-- She talked on the phone with his vetting team a few times but never met them in person until the day before McCain offered her the position. And by that point, the process was effectively over.
-- The five finalists were Palin, Lieberman, Romney, Pawlenty, and Ridge. McCain wanted a pick that would show he could still shock people. He and Lindsay Graham really wanted Lieberman but were talked out of it.
-- Obama's non-selection of HRC was considered a major factor. (Why he even thought it could be a possibility is unclear.)
-- No one on the vetting team was strongly for or against Palin.
Ms. Palin had no strong advocates in the group, an outside adviser said, but she had no detractors, either.
-- Perhaps most surprisingly, nobody from the vetting team ever went to Alaska to talk to anyone about her.
Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican political leader who has clashed with Palin in the past, was shocked when she heard the news Friday morning with her husband, Walt.
"I said to Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.
They didn't even try to contact anyone involved with the Walt Monegan firing investigation, which is interesting since the findings will be released the week before the election.
-- Palin herself was surprised to be offered the job.
Q. Obviously the talk had been going on for months. I never got the impression you took it super seriously.
A. No, I honestly did think it was out of the realm of possibility.
That could be just Palin's modesty coming through, but all articles indicate that this was an out-of-left-field choice to all involved except McCain himself. And if Palin herself didn't think her selection was seriously considered, then how thorough could the process have been? Wouldn't she have known that she was on a short list because they'd be investigating everything?
Combine that with McCain's statement this morning on FNC that Palin is his "soul mate", and what you're left with is this: he decided that she'd be a great selection effectively back in February based on a 15-minute conversation, then generated enough facts to fit the decision. The vetting process failed, even if the end result of the process is not a disaster. McCain didn't listen to his own advisors, didn't consider all the facts, and made a risky choice based on a long-held notion of himself. She didn't win over a single person on the team except McCain himself. It could turn out that Palin is capable of handling the job of VP, but McCain does not know that based on what his team told him. None of them had her as #1 on their lists. He went with his gut, not the facts.
This sounds eerily similar to the current Administration. If this is how McCain makes a VP choice, how is he going to be on matters of war, economy, judiciary, or other critical policies? Aren't we in a hell of a mess because of a President who makes decisions because of things like "I looked into his soul"?
Lest we forget, it's McCain at the top of the ticket. That is what will make the difference.