Lindsey Graham: Palin was vetted - the McCain Camp talking points say so!

[sabra]

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/09/02/graham.aspx

NEWSWEEK: What does it tell us about John McCain that he met Sarah Palin twice and offered her the job at the end of the first interview?
GRAHAM: I think the basic point here is--I underappreciated it a bit--is that John was committed to making a transforming choice. Pawlenty was by everyone's estimation a safe choice, a solid choice. And if he would've been the pick we would've been talking about an accomplished governor of the state of Minnesota who stuck with John during difficult times and is a solid conservative. But Tim is Tim.

...

What's your sense of where things stand now with all the stuff that's come out over the last day or so?
If this it, we won't be talking about it two weeks from now. Politically, I think what's been accomplished here is that we've energized the base beyond anything I've seen in politics. Not so much just because of her, but for some people what didn't happen . There's a real sense of relief out there. That said, there are not enough Republicans to win the election. If your model is just to get Republicans fired up, you can't win. They tell me there are about 12 percent of voters who are really undecided. About half of those people are women. With them, I think Gov. Palin's personal story is going to connect. When you look at the four people running, I would argue that her story is closer... that people can relate to her more than they can relate to the other three. Most of us haven't experienced what Joe Biden has experienced. Very few have experienced what John has experienced. And Barack Obama is a unique man--he's had unique experiences. But Gov. Palin's story in many ways reflects modern America. I'm thinking that's going to help us--warts and all.

You said "if this is it." That's the big "if" hovering over this convention.
The campaign sent out talking points today about how many pages of forms she filled out and how many lawyers met with her. This idea that John said, "Joe ain't gonna work--what's that lady's name?" That ain't what happened. That's not gonna stick.

[DJ13]

1. Lindsey sounds surprisingly unsupportive of McCain's VP choice

Maybe the rumors he was pushing for Lieberman are true after all.

[daggahead]

2. Lindsey Graham is a

lying sack of excrement.

[saltpoint]

3. Graham is a reasonably bright guy who is dangerously in love

with the authoritarian personality.

He could be said to be an adherent of the cult of authority. He holds it so highly as an ideal and as a controlling mechanism that he is willing to dissolve his personality into its adherence and in the process he willfully distorts public figures generally and Democrats especially.

I don't have much respect for him for this reason.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. She was not vetted in Alaska.

The "movers and shakers" here on both sides of the aisle were caught completely off guard, according to the following article in this morning's Anchorage Daily News. You would think that they would have talked to people here who have worked with her and know her well. It's kind of insulting, actually, that they didn't.

Sarah is pretty well liked here, so it might have helped the R's with damage control if they had some prominent Alaskans to back them up.

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/513143.html

Questions surround Palin's background check
IN DEPTH? In Alaska, very few people were involved in the GOP vetting process.

By RICHARD MAUER, LISA DEMER and SEAN COCKERHAM
Anchorage Daily News

<snip>

The former U.S. attorney for Alaska, Wev Shea, who enthusiastically recommended Palin back in March, said he was never contacted with any follow-up questions.

Chris Coleman, one of Palin's next-door neighbors, said no one representing McCain spoke to him about Palin. Another neighbor also was never contacted, he said Monday.

Republican Gail Phillips, a former speaker of the Alaska House, said Friday that she was shocked by McCain's selection of Palin and told her husband, Walt, "This can't be happening because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out." She said she would've heard had someone been poking around.

"We're not a very big state," Phillips said. "People I talk to would've heard something."

Monegan, fired by Palin in July, said that no one from the McCain campaign contacted him, either. His firing is now the subject of a special legislative investigation into whether Palin or members of her administration improperly interfered with the running of his department by pushing for dismissal of a state trooper involved in a divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.

Alaska Senate President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, told The New York Times, "They didn't speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn't speak to anyone in the business community."

Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Palin's background, the Times reported. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.

State Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat who is directing the legislative investigation, said that no one asked him about the allegations. "I heard not a word, not a single contact," he told the Times.

<snip>



And it goes on and on. It just seems very odd to me that people here weren't contacted by the McCain campaign when we Alaskans know her best, and probably better than most states' citizens know their governor since there are so few of us, and this could potentially have such unforeseen consequences on what happens next here. She IS our governor, after all.