Blockbuster NYT article tomorrow about not vetting Palin

[XOKCowboy]

I read it over on Americablog. Here's the link..

http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/ny-times-on-sarah-palin-vetting.html

From the NYT..

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.”

Of course they're just picking on poor Sarah and that's sexist. BWAHAHAHAHA I love a good Repug meltdown

[madmax]

1. Is it Christmas?

:rofl:

[jberryhill]

23. No. More Like Chanukah -

"Instead of one day of presents, we have 63 crazy nights."

Apologies to Adam Sandler.

[firedupdem]

2. There is No Way

they vetted this lady. They never would have wanted all this unwanted attention. I think they went with the quick! let's get a woman approach and one that would be considered attractive. They forgot to ask about DUI's, investigations, and pregnant teens...they also needed pro-life choice.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Welcome to DU! I also heard she didn't even go thru an FBI background check! n/t

[firedupdem]

4. I found something good!

I'm new here...not sure if this is someplace else but check this out!

Also...how do you call this guy sexist??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c12DfJ_J2A

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Who is saying who is sexist? n/t

[XOKCowboy]

9. Steph pwned that woman!!

Thanks for the clip. I usually can't watch Larry King.

[XOKCowboy]

14. I hate to say it but Carville was great in that clip also..

He showed Bachman how the cabbage is cooked.

[kestrel91316]

10. You can't possibly be serious. Jesus.

How do they know she's not, say, a Russian agent? She lives right next door to Russia. LOL

[ColbertWatcher]

18. That's what I heard. I don't have a link, but unless they retracted the story ...

... I'm sure one of the tubes has a link to it!

[City Lights]

21. It's in the Times article:

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[ColbertWatcher]

27. Yeah, I searched for "FBI" (no periods) LOL! Thank you! n/t

[wvbygod]

26. Did you know the FBI does not vet political candidates?

That would be both unethical and illegal.

[XOKCowboy]

8. It's all about making responsible decisions as President..

This shows McSame as just following that his Rovian handlers said, the heck with the country.

[Hugabear]

5. She has a vagina. That's all that McCain needed to know.

Sorry to be so blunt, but it's the truth. He wanted a younger woman to try and woo Hillary's supporters. There are plenty of other better qualified rethugs that he could have chosen. Even if picking a Christian Taliban was his biggest priority, there are plenty of evangelical types that he could have gone with.

[depakid]

6. She was "vetted" by the so called "Council for National Policy"

See: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_National_Policy

Last week, while the media focused almost obsessively on the DNC's spectacle in Denver, the country's most influential conservatives met quietly at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis to get to know Sarah Palin. The assembled were members of the Council for National Policy, an ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy.

CNP members have included Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich. At a secret 2000 meeting of the CNP, George W. Bush promised to nominate only pro-life judges; in 2004, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told the group, "The destiny of the nation is on the shoulders of the conservative movement." This year, thanks to Sarah Palin's selection, the movement may have finally aligned itself behind the campaign of John McCain.

Though Dobson and Perkins reportedly attended the recent CNP meeting in Minneapolis, a full roster of guests would be nearly impossible to require. The CNP deliberately operates below the radar, going to excessive lengths to obscure its activities. According to official CNP policy, "The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs before or after a meeting." Thus the CNP's Minneapolis gathering was free of reporters. I only learned of the get-together through an online commentary by one of its attendees, top Dobson/Focus on the Family flack Tom Minnery. (Watch it here)

Minnery described the mood as CNP members watched Palin accept her selection as John McCain's Vice Presidential pick. "I was standing in the back of a ballroom filled with largely Republicans who were hoping against hope that something would put excitement back into this campaign," Minnery said. "And I have to tell you, that speech by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin -- people were on their seats applauding, cheering, yelling... That room in Minneapolis watching on the television screen was electrified. I have not seen anything like it in a long time."

Minnery added that his boss, Dobson, has yearned for a conservative female leader like Margaret Thatcher to emerge on the American scene. And while Palin is no Thatcher, "she has not rejected the feminine side of who she is, so for that reason, she will be attractive to conservative voters."

More: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/16846

[XOKCowboy]

11. I read that also. It's all coming out..

Wait till they start talking about the AIP! hehehehe

[donco6]

15. Darn. They thought they had Maggie Thatcher reincarnated.

But they don't believe in reincarnation, and Maggie ain't dead yet.

[depakid]

16. Far as I know, Maggie never shot a moose!

So they thought they'd done one better.

[Sonicmedusa]

12. That's just the kinda shoot-from-the-hip kinda guy John is, pilgrim. (NT)

[tabatha]

13. What may be the most embarrassing thing about it all

is that McCain may have to stick with her - I doubt anybody else would like to run after the mess-up he has made.

[XOKCowboy]

17. I'm pretty sure Joe would forgive his ol' buddy..

and consent to being his Veep. The only thing better than McCain/Palin would be McCain/Lieberman after this mess.

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. THIS IS THE POINT!!! NO JUDGMENT!!!, RECOMMENDED, RECOMMENDED RECOMMENDED!!!

[Douglas Carpenter]

20. here is the direct link to the full NYT article

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

BTW Huffington Post now has a full page of research and info on Sarah Palin:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/sarah-palin

[jberryhill]

22. *delete* wrong spot

[Douglas Carpenter]

24. RECOMMEND!! RECOMMEND!!! RECOMMEND!!! NOW THIS IS A STORY TO PUSH TO THE TOP NOW!!!!

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. From the NYT article:

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.”

He had months to do this. He thought being 'safe' or 'predictable' wouldn't give him a bounce in the polls. The religious conservatives vetoed the choice of the (slightly) pro-choice Lieberman and Ridge. So, at the last minute, he chooses someone he knows hardly anything about.

Wow - that really is poor planning and judgement. Yet another reason he shouldn't be let near the White House. You'd put more effort into choosing someone for an entry-level job in a big company.