NYT suggests Palin vetting process a disaster

[Napalm]

NYT Link

What struck me most about this article that paints a damning picture of McCain's judgement is that it is based almost entirely on Republican sources. Not sure how this will be refuted by Conservatives...

 

[Bitek]

Besides the obviousness of the topic, this thread is going nowhere if there is nothing to read...

 

[bdude]

It's pretty clear that McCain made a quick and dirty decision at the last second. Way to go McCain.

 

[QED]

Your title is not substantiated by the NYT article you link to.

Also, this is P&N. Care to actually offer some commentary instead of linking an article?

 

[Stoneburner]

Originally posted by: QED
Your title is not substantiated by the NYT article you link to.

Also, this is P&N. Care to actually offer some commentary instead of linking an article?

His title is misleading to the extent the NYT does not call it a disaster, but it sure sounds like a disaster given that his vetting team did not vet.

 

[Napalm]

Originally posted by: QED
Your title is not substantiated by the NYT article you link to.

Also, this is P&N. Care to actually offer some commentary instead of linking an article?

You are correct - title edited and I have added my 2 cents in the body of the post.

 

[nageov3t]

dear god... no more palin threads.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

Simple; don't visit the forum, don't watch TV news, and don't read the papers. When you pick an obscure public figure who has not been vetted by the public for the VP slot, prepare for a Baptism by fire.

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

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.

On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state?s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin?s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.

Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin?s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom.

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.

Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, 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.

Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.

With time running out ? and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable ? he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain?s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months.

?They didn?t seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before,? said a Republican close to the campaign. ?This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn?t get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge.?

In the final stages, two Republicans familiar with the process said, Mr. McCain?s campaign manager, Rick Davis, emerged as a key advocate for Ms. Palin.

Mr. McCain?s advisers said repeatedly on Monday that Ms. Palin was ?thoroughly vetted,? a process that would have included a review of all financial and legal records as well as a criminal background check. A McCain aide said the campaign was well aware of the ethics investigation and had looked into it.

?It was obviously something that anybody Googling Sarah Palin knew was in the news and there was a very thorough vetting done on that and also on the daughter,? the aide said.

People familiar with the process said Ms. Palin had responded to a standard form with more than 70 questions. Although The Washington Post quoted advisers to Mr. McCain on Sunday as saying Ms. Palin had been subjected to an F.B.I. background check, an F.B.I. official said Monday the bureau did not vet potential candidates and had not known of her selection until it was made public.

Mark Salter, Mr. McCain?s closest adviser, said in an e-mail message that Ms. Palin had been interviewed by Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., a veteran Washington lawyer in charge of the vice-presidential vetting process for Mr. McCain, as well as by other lawyers who worked for Mr. Culvahouse. Mr. Salter did not respond to an e-mail message asking if Ms. Palin had told Mr. Culvahouse and his lawyers that her daughter was pregnant.

In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about Ms. Palin before the announcement of her selection, Although campaigns are typically discreet when they make inquiries into potential running mates, officials in Alaska said Monday they thought it was peculiar that no one in the state had the slightest hint that Ms. Palin might be under consideration.

?They didn?t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn?t speak to anyone in the business community,? said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.

Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.

?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.?

The current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne M. Keller, said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Ms. Palin?s background. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.

State Senator Hollis French, a Democrat who is directing the ethics investigation, said that no one asked him about the allegations. ?I heard not a word, not a single contact,? he said.

A number of Republicans said the McCain campaign had to some degree tied its hands in its effort to keep the selection process so secret.

?If you really want it to be a surprise, the circle of people that you?re going to allow to know about it is going to be small, and that?s just the nature of it,? said Dan Bartlett, a former counselor to President Bush.

Former McCain strategists disagreed on whether it would have been useful for Ms. Palin?s name to have been more publicly floated before her selection so that issues like the trooper investigation and her daughter?s pregnancy might have already been aired and not seemed so new at the time of her announcement.

?It?s a risk,? said Dan Schnur, a former McCain aide who now directs the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. ?No matter how great the candidate, it?s a significant risk to put someone on the ticket? who hasn?t been publicly scrutinized.

?They obviously felt it was worth the risk to rev up the base and potentially reach out to Clinton supporters,? Mr. Schnur said.

 

[miketheidiot]

in before the thread merge


*content incoming

edit: i really have nothing to say really, just seems like more of a bad decision from a non-political standpoint.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

Simple; don't visit the forum, don't watch TV news, and don't read the papers. When you pick an obscure public figure who has not been vetted by the public for the VP slot, prepare for a Baptism by fire.

sure, but do we need to have 15 separate topics (not counting the merged ones) and 3,286 posts over the past 2 days about it?

 

[Blackjack200]

This, to me, is the biggest fallout of Palingate. Not the issue with her daughter - which shouldn't even be an issue, not the AIP stuff, not even the investigation into her firing of the public safety comissioner. It's that "The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin."

McCain is trying to sell himself as the experienced, level-headed predictable guy. This is a major gaffe.

 

[nageov3t]

McCain is trying to sell himself as the experienced, level-headed predictable guy. This is a major gaffe.

well, when you've got nothing to lose...

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

Simple; don't visit the forum, don't watch TV news, and don't read the papers. When you pick an obscure public figure who has not been vetted by the public for the VP slot, prepare for a Baptism by fire.

sure, but do we need to have 15 separate topics (not counting the merged ones) and 3,286 posts over the past 2 days about it?

Ab-so-fucking-lutely.

Here's an idea, how about you go through P&N (including the archives) for the last 18 months and tell us how many threads and posts we've had discussing Obama.

Palin got dropped into the laps of the American people like an unwanted pregnancy. We're going to vet the shit out of her until November 4th.

 

[QED]

Originally posted by: Napalm

Originally posted by: QED
Your title is not substantiated by the NYT article you link to.

Also, this is P&N. Care to actually offer some commentary instead of linking an article?

You are correct - title edited and I have added my 2 cents in the body of the post.

Thanks.

With that said, I think this article confirms pretty much what everyone already suspects: McCain decided to take a gamble with this dark-horse selection. Whether the lack of questioning of fellow Alaskan politicians beforehand reflects a careless oversight, or a need for secrecy, or was simply deemed unnecessary we won't know for sure.

As we also know, even the most thorough vetting process doesn't guaruntee that your selection will end up being a wise one. For isntance, even Bill Clinton had to weather two embarrasing nominations for his Attorney General position before he found Janet Reno.

If this article was accurate, it sounds like McCain was stuck-- he couldn't pick the two men he really wanted to pick (Lieberman and Ridge), as half of his half-hearted supporters would mutiny. He needed someone with strong conservative credentials, without too much additional baggage. I still believe he made the right selection...

 

[TechAZ]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

Simple; don't visit the forum, don't watch TV news, and don't read the papers. When you pick an obscure public figure who has not been vetted by the public for the VP slot, prepare for a Baptism by fire.

sure, but do we need to have 15 separate topics (not counting the merged ones) and 3,286 posts over the past 2 days about it?

Ab-so-fucking-lutely.

Here's an idea, how about you go through P&N (including the archives) for the last 18 months and tell us how many threads and posts we've had discussing Obama.

Palin got dropped into the laps of the American people like an unwanted pregnancy. We're going to vet the shit out of her until November 4th.

:laugh:

Now that really was funny.

 

[Blackjack200]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Palin got dropped into the laps of the American people like an unwanted pregnancy. We're going to vet the shit out of her until November 4th.

Oy Vey, this is going places...

 

[Napalm]

Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

This article pretty much summarizes EVERYTHING in those threads and should finally show you that this is a fiasco for McCain. How do you spin this when its coming from inside the Republican campaign? Its like rats fleeing a sinking ship...

 

[Napalm]

Originally posted by: QED

Originally posted by: Napalm

Originally posted by: QED
Your title is not substantiated by the NYT article you link to.

Also, this is P&N. Care to actually offer some commentary instead of linking an article?

You are correct - title edited and I have added my 2 cents in the body of the post.

Thanks.

With that said, I think this article confirms pretty much what everyone already suspects: McCain decided to take a gamble with this dark-horse selection. Whether the lack of questioning of fellow Alaskan politicians beforehand reflects a careless oversight, or a need for secrecy, or was simply deemed unnecessary we won't know for sure.

As we also know, even the most thorough vetting process doesn't guaruntee that your selection will end up being a wise one. For isntance, even Bill Clinton had to weather two embarrasing nominations for his Attorney General position before he found Janet Reno.

If this article was accurate, it sounds like McCain was stuck-- he couldn't pick the two men he really wanted to pick (Lieberman and Ridge), as half of his half-hearted supporters would mutiny. He needed someone with strong conservative credentials, without too much additional baggage. I still believe he made the right selection...

It shows that the religious right has McCain by the short an curlies...

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: Napalm

Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

This article pretty much summarizes EVERYTHING in those threads and should finally show you that this is a fiasco for McCain. How do you spin this when its coming from inside the Republican campaign? Its like rats fleeing a sinking ship...

the spin is easy -- bitter insiders who are pissed off that McCain didn't choose their puppet Romney.

 

[Napalm]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: Napalm

Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

This article pretty much summarizes EVERYTHING in those threads and should finally show you that this is a fiasco for McCain. How do you spin this when its coming from inside the Republican campaign? Its like rats fleeing a sinking ship...

the spin is easy -- bitter insiders who are pissed off that McCain didn't choose their puppet Romney.

we finally agree. now go sell that to the american public...

 

[quest55720]

I think it has gotten to the point that I am just laughing about the whole thing. This is easily the most entertaining presidental election ever. I just wonder how much more the MSM can put on the Palin family. It is going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

 

[TechAZ]

Originally posted by: QED

Originally posted by: Napalm

Originally posted by: QED
Your title is not substantiated by the NYT article you link to.

Also, this is P&N. Care to actually offer some commentary instead of linking an article?

You are correct - title edited and I have added my 2 cents in the body of the post.

Thanks.

With that said, I think this article confirms pretty much what everyone already suspects: McCain decided to take a gamble with this dark-horse selection. Whether the lack of questioning of fellow Alaskan politicians beforehand reflects a careless oversight, or a need for secrecy, or was simply deemed unnecessary we won't know for sure.

As we also know, even the most thorough vetting process doesn't guaruntee that your selection will end up being a wise one. For isntance, even Bill Clinton had to weather two embarrasing nominations for his Attorney General position before he found Janet Reno.

If this article was accurate, it sounds like McCain was stuck-- he couldn't pick the two men he really wanted to pick (Lieberman and Ridge), as half of his half-hearted supporters would mutiny. He needed someone with strong conservative credentials, without too much additional baggage. I still believe he made the right selection...

Gotta wonder though. Why do they care so much, and why so much attention and desperation to get dirt so quick? They fear her.

Was it a rushed decision? Maybe. I don't know what's going on in the McCain camp, but I do know that people don't really give a flying fck that her daughter is preggers. They might think about the investigation, but the whole point of the investigation is to come to a conclusion of wrongdoing so they will know soon enough about that.

 

[Napalm]

Originally posted by: TechAZ

Originally posted by: QED

Originally posted by: Napalm

Originally posted by: QED
Your title is not substantiated by the NYT article you link to.

Also, this is P&N. Care to actually offer some commentary instead of linking an article?

You are correct - title edited and I have added my 2 cents in the body of the post.

Thanks.

With that said, I think this article confirms pretty much what everyone already suspects: McCain decided to take a gamble with this dark-horse selection. Whether the lack of questioning of fellow Alaskan politicians beforehand reflects a careless oversight, or a need for secrecy, or was simply deemed unnecessary we won't know for sure.

As we also know, even the most thorough vetting process doesn't guaruntee that your selection will end up being a wise one. For isntance, even Bill Clinton had to weather two embarrasing nominations for his Attorney General position before he found Janet Reno.

If this article was accurate, it sounds like McCain was stuck-- he couldn't pick the two men he really wanted to pick (Lieberman and Ridge), as half of his half-hearted supporters would mutiny. He needed someone with strong conservative credentials, without too much additional baggage. I still believe he made the right selection...

Gotta wonder though. Why do they care so much, and why so much attention and desperation to get dirt so quick? They fear her.

Was it a rushed decision? Maybe. I don't know what's going on in the McCain camp, but I do know that people don't really give a flying fck that her daughter is preggers. They might think about the investigation, but the whole point of the investigation is to come to a conclusion of wrongdoing so they will know soon enough about that.

Is there a point in there somewhere?

 

[TechAZ]

Originally posted by: Napalm
Is there a point in there somewhere?

Yes

 

[MaxisOne]

"Palin got dropped into the laps of the American people like an unwanted pregnancy. We're going to vet the shit out of her until November 4th."


That comment was HI!! Larious !!. I literally spewed my drink out after reading that one!!