The NYT is questioning McCain about how closely he could possibly have vetted Sarah Palin when his vetting team didn't even arrive in Alaska until Thursday, the day before he announced his VP pick.
They note a string of disclosures since McCain's announcement: the daughter's pregnancy, that she hired a private attorney for the Troopergate matter, that she was a member for two years in the 90s of the Alaska Independent Party (get out of the good old USA) and that her husband was arrested 22 years ago for drunk driving.
"While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Ms. Palin on the first day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the selection of Ms. Palin to question Mr. McCain’s judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions.
"At the least, 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."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The Times says even within 48-72 hours of announcing Palin's name, McCain still wanted Lieberman or Tom Ridge, but that when word got out of those potential VPs and their position on Abortion, "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."
Fun. A floor fight!
Also, as we suspected, the paper claims McCain was told he had to shake things up in the campaign or "be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory." (Kind of like Time Horizons gone bad, right?)
This is a real ouch on those qualifications for a good leader: McCain "had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later." (Hey, it's only VP and McCain is only 72.)
The Times quotes a former Republican Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives: "I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called," Ms. Phillips said. "I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything."