Perhaps the better question is not: "Did the seach committee do their job?" But rather "Why did McCain think they could?" (or "Why did they even try?").
The only appropriate response to a last minute attempt to finish vettig Sarah Palin would have been for the search committee to have told the President "No. It can't be done."
She never ran for an office in any environment where teams of sophisticated, well-financed reporters and opposition researchers were out digging up any controversy against her. Nor did she face the investigative skill of bloggers. That's what is happening now.
Duplicate that process with a few search committee investigators in a few weeks? Move her up from way down the list to the number one choice and finish the vetting in a couple of days?
Impossible.
With the intensity of a modern campaign for president or vice president, the process to determine if there are any disabling controversies or personal issues in any candidate's past can only be done with a large staff over a period of months. If the candidate has run for a major national office before, that vetting has been already been done in part by the press and opposition.
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