The vetting issue, while definitely inside the beltway baseball, is more broadly relevant, because it suggests that McCain’s decision-making process is harried and haphazard.
From the Washington Post:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person
background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain’s vice
presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day
before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not
disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that
meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday… McCain had spoken with all of the others on his shortlist over the
course of a selection process that went on for several months, but he
was least familiar personally with the person he finally chose.
From Andrew Sullivan:
How confident does that make you in McCain’s executive skills? And one wonders whether the vetters had read this Anchorage Daily News story or this one. Or whether they were aware that she had been at a Jews For Jesus sermon only a week or so previously, on August 17, where the speaker said that anti-Israeli terrorism was "God’s Judgment" for the Jews not converting to Christianity.
