First, I feel sorry for the Palin kid. For the mother to thrust her family into the world's biggest spotlight, then turn around and ask for privacy is either stupid or so egocentric as to be unbelievable.
Every day, it is clear that McCain made this selection on a knee-jerk reaction to Obama not selecting Hillary, and one of his pasty, white, rich male advisors told him they could get some women votes if they named a woman. So..they did. Even her initial speech couldn't have been vetted against the very public facts. If someone wrote that line - "I told Congress thanks but no thanks on the bridge to nowhere" for her, they didn't do even the most simple fact checking on it, because it is a blatant lie. If they let her write her own speech without looking at it and fact checking it, it shows what an accessory she really is, certainly not going to be part of the team, a trophy veep.
Anybody that believes that, with the uber sanctimonious pundits that support him such as Limbaugh, O'Reilley, and that nutty preacher who just recently endorsed McCain now that he has a "family values Christian" on the ticket, McCain knew about this in advance is beyond naive. He would have to prove he knew it, just like he has to prove his statement that Palin supported the Surge when she is on record as not even being sure what the surge was at the time it began.
This is what you get with McCain, all instinct, all gut reaction, no logical, systematic thought. Wesley Clark was right, the pilot mentality of see the target and drop the bomb has nothing to do with the experience of planning the strategic and tactical approach to a battle, including its conclusion and exit. The choice of Palin is simply a reflection of McCain's disorganized, random, chaotic answers to the voices in his head. Sorry to interrupt the hurricane coverage and the "no politics" pledge of the McCain campaign today, let the turd polishing continue. If he wins, which side of the White House will the trailer be parked on?