Talk Elections

I don't want to say "completely" vetted, because nobody's is ever completely vetted.  But, do you think McCain staff did their job thoroughly in vetting Palin?

No, according to her hometown newspaper where she was mayor for a number of years, Republicans never asked for their [non-online] archives.  The Democratic oppo researchers were told they were the first people to ask for records mentioning Palin.

A hometown newspaper in 6,000 person town is a goldmine of information on the mayor, I can't fathom why Republicans wouldn't have done this.

they probably would have liked to have explored every orifice, but...

sorry, I just can't bring myself to post this

LOL, no.  Not saying that she isn't a good choice, though.

Congrats. You just sinned. God is angry.

Of course not.

No (Other).

I don't really have much against her yet. However it's extremely obvious that McCain wasn't prepared for the ensuing media sh**t storm or the various allegations being thrown her way. It comes off as sloppy and opportunistic to be blunt.

sorry, the only time Sarah Palin has even come close to exciting me was in the picture where her tshirt was sporting the fact that she had nice breasts.  And I cursed her for it!  ;)

You're a better man than I.  I get pretty fired up about every picture of her when her hair is down.  Those first ones you posted... humminahummina.

Assuming this is the worst, yes, she was.

I really don't think so.

It doesn't look like it, no.

Breaking:  McCain's camp fights back against these rumors.  Palin was one of six candidates who answer a rigorous 70 question exam.

Pushing back aggressively against charges of lax or hasty vetting, the McCain campaign disclosed Tuesday that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was one of six finalists for running mate who filled out a 70-question form that included detailed personal, professional and financial probing.

The campaign says the form included such detailed questions as: Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever paid for sex? Have you ever downloaded pornography? Have you ever used or purchased drugs?

“Anybody who says that she wasn’t completely vetted is completely wrong,” a McCain campaign official said. “Everything that has come out over the last couple of days is information that we already knew — that came during this vetting process. The bottom line is that John McCain believes she is a qualified executive who’s able to fill the role of the vice president.”

Palin, unveiled on Friday as vice presidential running mate for the Arizona senator, has been in a media storm since her announcement Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. The daughter plans to keep the baby and marry the father, the announcement says.

As part of the McCain staff’s effort to fight a media storm, official campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb labeled as “fiction” a front-page New York Times story questioning the Palin vetting process.

Palin had been researched thoroughly even earlier than the questionnaire stage, as part of a group of 21 semifinalists who were not informed of their status but who were researched from public records.

“The fact of the matter is she was vetted over the course of about four to five months," the McCain official said, "in a vetting process that was read by  a former Reagan White House counsel,” Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr.

“It included a comprehensive group of researchers and investigators prepared background memos that included information in regards to all media coverage pertaining to her, her political positions, her issues, a review of finance documents, a credit check, a personal interview with the candidate, and a questionnaire,” the official said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13089.html

OK, I know McCain says he knew about this already, but I doubt, "Is your daughter pregnant?" is a question.  The point is, 70 questions doesn't cover half the weird crap that could go on under the covers (no pun intended) of a politician.  And a questionaire doesn't do hardly anything anyway.  The staff need to go and dig up every record there is - any mention of "Sarah Palin" should've been investigated.

Option 7:  We'll find out soon enough.

Yes, but I'm not certain that McCain fully made use of that vetting.

Yes. I don't think they anticipated how crude and shameless the far-left blogs would be in their attempts to smear her, however.

Nope. I'll bite and say that if McCain had picked Lieberman or possibly even Romney that I might have possible voted for him.

First, I think a lot of the bogs were started as Republican plants, like that Daily Kos story.  You are seeing the development of the "Those Democratic men are being mean to Sweet Sarah Palin," strategy (and half the red avatars here have fallen for it).

Second, from what I've heard, no surprises.  The campaign knew about Bristol on Thursday from a personal interview.  They knew that Todd had a DUI 22 years ago.  They knew that Sarah was once fined for fishing without a license.  She is clean.

On another note, I saw the guy who vetted me, on MSNBC about 45 minutes ago.

who vetted you and for what

Ambinder:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday.

Define "lengthy".  Define "in-person".  (Telephone interviews aren't good enough?  Why not?  This search is supposed to be done in at least partial secrecy.)  And who are these "knowledgeable McCain officials"?  Why are they remaining anonymous?

Assuming the sources are actually in the know and don't have axes to grind, all this proves is John McCain full well knew about Bristol's pregnancy.  And he chose Governor Palin anyway.  Which is what they've said all along.

Sorry.  Despite what the breathless MSM that itself hadn't properly vetted Palin's alleged AIP membership and other "scandals" before running with them says, Palin was properly vetted.

I'm not arguing for trusting the veracity of anonymous sources indiscriminately...but that question should probably be rhetorical :P No one in the McCain campaign is going to officially say, "we blew it."  Ever.  Before November, at least.

All valid criticisms Cinyc.  Marc Ambinder is an interesting guy, but he's no Huffingtonpost, he's a good investigative reporter.  It's anonymous, but it doesn't mean it's worthless, what else can I say?  But it seems a majority of good news stories have anonymous sources.

Yes and no.  I hate anonymous sources.  I don't know whether they're releasing information because they're authorized to do so on a non-attribution basis, aren't but think it's in the candidate's best interest, or have a huge axe to grind because they were not insiders in the process and feel slighted.  That's why I greatly discount anything I read from an anonymous source.   I don't know enough to know what to know.

Oh, good lord -- so much going on, I could really get into this forum again!

But no ... no she was not properly vetted. Not at all.

I think from what John McCain knew about Governor Palin he did a good job vetting, as you Americans like to call it, however I don't think he did enough research prior to selecting Governor Palin as his running mate. I doubt the McCain campaign, nor hardly anyone expected a large barrage of dirt to come and tarnish Governor Palin.

Perhaps the McCain camp knew this stuff, but they clearly didn't prepare everyone for it. Seems like a good two days went by before there was a response on the AIP thing, clearly Palin's McCain campaign spokesperson did not know about the pregnancy until late Saturday or Sunday, they had clearly done little if any preparation on Levi, it seems it was Friday that Palin's lawyer on the troopergate thing kicked into high gear.

Maybe they knew a lot of it, but they knew it at the last minute, and in a few cases some key staffers knew it after they needed to.

Part and parcel with trying to maintain secrecy is that you keep the circle of those in the know tight.  The major trade-off for that is that those who aren't in the know but need to speak for you need time to digest what they need to know.

I still think much, if not all, of Monday's bad news about Palin was deliberately leaked because it was a Labor Day when a hurricane was hitting New Orleans.  The only thing most folks are talking about anyway is Bristol's pregnancy.  Palin should put that to rest tomorrow.

tropper gate was already known.

the only punches that have been landed on Palin are from Bristol's pregnancy, which McCain claims he knew. And judging from the fact they're flying in the boyfriend, it looks like they had it planned to dump the news on Labor Day and bring the boy front and center Wednesday.

Was it a crazy plan? Absolutely.  Would I have chosen Palin knowing that Bristol was pregnant?  I highly doubt it.

IF nothing else damaging is found, then the vetting process was right on the mark.  

Does that mean she was a risk worth taking considering all the known baggage?  That remains to be seen.