ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.[...]
Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now [emphasis added] to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background.
Your conventional notions of temporality-as-usual are nothing to John McCain. You might think that a candidate who only initiates the vetting process in earnest after he announces his running mate is "desperate" or "reckless" or "insane," but that's only because your puny minds are unable to comprehend that just as John McCain is a maverick who exists above partisan politics, he also exists above the march of time itself.
aw, c'mon. I'm clearly no fan, but to take the woman up on her daughter being pregnant (in ALASKA?) and a 22-years-ago failed breathalyser test (in ALASKA?? OMFG!) -- That's pretty darn petty, don't you think? I mean, just how squeeky clean is everyone around here? Louis Armstrong served time for possession. I turned right on a red-light once, despite the signage.
Let's not descend to the tactics of the Dark Side, because the Ends do not justify the means.
Posted by: mrG | 03 September 2008 at 05:06 PM
Not all of the revelations are relevant -- I'm more concerned about her ties to Jack Abramoff's lobbyists, myself -- but the fact that the McCain campaign is only finding out about this stuff at the same time as everyone else is a stunning indictment of their campaign. McCain was apparently told (by who, I wonder?) that he "couldn't have" either of his preferred choices, Lieberman and Ridge, so he just rolled the dice on a woman who a week ago wasn't on the short list, a woman he'd met just once and knew absolutely nothing about. What the hell kind of judgement is that?
And "dark side" -- come on, now. The Obama campaign has been quite happy to stand on the sidelines and let the McCain people hang themselves on this. The press is being aggressive, for once, but in a free society, the press is supposed to be aggressive. McCain's protestations to the contrary, there's nothing unfair about the media vetting Palin's getting.
Posted by: DJA | 03 September 2008 at 05:47 PM
Ha, yeah it's funny what a week can bring. I remember being worried a week ago that McCain's VP pick would crush any bump in the polls from the Democratic Convention. Now people are crying Eagleton all over again!
It's funny, they were so vicious and tactful in the weeks leading up to this...
Btw, this all is making GREAT Daily Show material, the show's been off the hook the last few days.
Posted by: Matt Marks | 03 September 2008 at 06:59 PM
Let's not misunderestimate Palin. Again, for me, the real story is that McCain doesn't call the shots in his own campaign -- somebody else evidently overruled McCain on what is traditionally a would-be president's first executive decision -- his/her Veep choice. So McCain and his team were caught flat-footed on all of this stuff. But there's probably a reason why whoever is actually wearing the pants in this campaign is so gung-ho for her.
The "Eagleton" stuff is amusing, but obviously there's no way. He's had her forced down his throat and now he's got to take her all the way.
If you'll excuse the disgusting metaphor.
Posted by: DJA | 04 September 2008 at 02:16 AM
I had a horrible thought on all this: What if the McCain campaign is a set-up? I've seen it happen before, and given the state of the US economy that's going so under-reported these days, what if the whole point of their strategy is to get Obama elected ... so he's caught holding the bag when the fan gets hit? Far fetched? I remember the Ontario provincial elections where Bob Rae's NDP won a surprise "victory for the Left" only to be greeted on inauguration by a whopping debt that had 'somehow' gone un-noticed. Sure enough, not only was Rae completely discredited for "bad government" even by the labour unions who had put him there, but Ontario was so pavlov'd by the whole thing that the NDP hasn't had even a ghost's chance of any sort of voice ever since.
Like I said, it was a horrible thought.
Posted by: mrG | 07 September 2008 at 10:55 PM
Conspiracy theories are unnecessary. Believe me, McCain isn't trying to lose, and the election shows every sign of being extremely close.
And of course if Obama wins he will be blamed for all of the problems the previous administration created. That's politics.
Posted by: DJA | 08 September 2008 at 08:46 AM