And the Vetting Goes On

[ProSense]

And the Vetting Goes On

September 1st, 2008 by JAZZ SHAW

At this point it has almost become tedious… one can only jam one’s head against the same brick wall so many times before the roughshod imprints begin to dent the cranium too far. But in the ongoing saga of the vetting of Sarah Palin (which we have been repeatedly assured by the McCain team was done thoroughly and carefully before Friday’s surprising announcement) there is yet another crack in the wall coming out of the convention.

(Video Mitchell: GOP Lawyers in Alaska for "Deeper Vet")

We had heard hints of this. But just moments ago, Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC said that Republican lawyers are currently doing a vet of Sarah Palin up in Alaska. We’ll get you the video shortly. But it seems that the really deep vet of Palin started after her selection was announced.

While this may seem vindictive, I have seen the standard talking points issued in defense of both the vetting and the qualifications of Sarah Palin as our next Vice President. Frankly, even before seeing the report above, I have hardly been convinced by either. Never mind the fact that nobody ever checked into the hometown newspapers where Palin was Mayor. Perhaps we can assume that Team McCain knew that the pro-life, abstinence-only, family-values-oriented Palin’s unmarried teenage daughter was pregnant. The bridge to nowhere flip flop, the windfall profits tax on Alaskan oil interests, and the obvious questions about why a state Governor’s office was involving themselves in the employment issues of a state trooper barracks… we can let it all go for now.

What exactly would be so bad? I’ve been involved in politics at various levels since the Nixon administration and blogging and/or doing radio since before the invasion of Iraq, but I feel like a silly freshman asking the question. Yet still I must ask! Why? Would it be all that awful to say that the choice had been Pawlenty, or Lieberman or Ridge or even Charlie Crist? To admit that something - be it the Democratic convention, Obama’s speech, the polls… something - spooked McCain into a rapid and unwise pick of someone even less qualified than Obama with so little to recommend her to the office? And with so much baggage attached? The convention hasn’t reached its peak. Is it really too late to turn back?

[Olney Blue]

1. I'm thinking that our convention scared the hell out of him, so he

went for a fundie to energize his crazy base.

[POAS]

3. She was backup plan D

If you were plan A, B, or C how would you feel about him coming back to you now?

The Base is all they think about, say isn't "The Base" the translation for "al qaeda"?

[ProSense]

5. Notice in the OP the emphasis on the word

"less." This was written by someone not firmly in Obama's camp, but still having doubts about McCain.

He screwed up.

[karynnj]

2. This is clearly the worst pick I ever saw - and that includes 1972, the first year I voted

There's a problem for everyone here.

[ProSense]

4. It's bizarre. n/t