Sam Stein produces even more damning evidence about how little John McCain's campaign vetted Sarah Palin. I pointed out earlier that his vetting team never spoke to Walt Monegan, the man fired by Palin who's at the center of the "Troopergate" scandal swirling around her. Reportedly, they decided to travel to Alaska to investigate the matter only the day after McCain introduced his running mate.
Increasingly, it looks like the McCain team didn't make even the most cursory tour of Palin's home state.
In addition, the former Republican House Speaker of Alaska, Gail Phillips, admitted to reporters that she was shocked by McCain's choice of Palin, as "his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out."
Ah, but there's more. A Democratic researcher told Stein...
... as of this weekend, the McCain campaign had not gone through old newspaper articles from the Valley Frontiersman, Palin's hometown newspaper.
How does he know? The paper's (massive) archives are not online. And when he went to research past content, he was told he was the first to inquire.
"No one else had requested access before," said the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which means the McCain camp didn't."
Palin spent some tumultuous years as mayor of her hometown, Wasilla, as I described the other day. For example, she demanded mass resignations from all town supervisors as a test of loyalty to her personally. A 2006 profile of Sarah Palin's political career in the Anchorage Daily News noted:
With the local newspaper, the Frontiersman, upset about the uproar, a citizens group started meeting to discuss a recall of the new mayor.
The local paper repeatedly expressed strong dissatisfaction with her job performance. And yet the McCain campaign never even bothered to check out the paper's archives. This is utter incompetence.
What in the world would a McCain presidency look like if they're this sloppy about such a major decision as the choice of running mate?
Update This keeps getting more ridiculous. Via BJ Bjornson at Newshoggers, I see that Andrew Halcro has a new post up this evening. He ran as an Independent candidate for Governor against Sarah Palin and has consistently provided insightful commentary on her administration. Here's Halcro's latest in its entirety:
Vetting the Veep...post announcement
The campaign of John McCain has sent a staff of eight people into Alaska to conduct background checks and vetting on Governor Sarah Palin.
Word is they have have eight rooms reserved at a Wasilla hotel.
Sooner or later the traditional media probably will begin debating one of these questions:
Can John McCain explain the gaps in vetting Sarah Palin?
Will Sarah Palin have to step aside?
Neither is a very useful question to be focused on because of the amount of room they leave for mere speculation and spin. The more important question is likely to be eclipsed: What does this tell us about how McCain would handle the presidency?
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