CHICAGO – Senator Barack Obama has declared the personal life and family of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska to be off-limits for criticism, but his campaign manager said Tuesday that voters should be allowed to weigh Senator John McCain’s judgment in choosing Ms. Palin as his running-mate.
“The way the process was done should be of interest to voters because I do think it speaks to how things will be managed and executed as president,” said David Plouffe, who manages the Obama campaign. “At the end of the day, it may work out for them, but the process is a transparent moment for voters to decide how these two people will go about major decisions.”
Since Mr. McCain announced his surprise vice presidential selection last week, the Obama campaign has grappled with how to respond to Ms. Palin.
First, aides belittled her experience as a former small-town mayor. Then, Mr. Obama praised Ms. Palin’s life story and admonished Democrats to “back off” criticizing her family over the revelation that her teen-age daughter is pregnant. In doing so, Mr. Obama said, “My mother had me when she was 18. How family deals with issues and teen-age children, that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics.”
In an interview here on Tuesday, Mr. Plouffe said voters should instead judge Mr. McCain for what he called an “impulsive” decision to choose Ms. Palin, who has served as governor of Alaska for 20 months. He said Ms. Palin’s governmental record in Alaska is fair game for examination in the final two months of the campaign, but not her family.
“You have to assume that when you’re making this pick – if something happened to you – you are choosing the 45th president of the United States,” Mr. Plouffe said. “And it’s a big decision.”
The McCain campaign says that the pick of Ms. Palin was carefully made and that she was thoroughly vetted.
When Mr. Obama named Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running-mate on Aug. 23, aides declined to offer a window into how Mr. Obama made what he called one of the biggest decisions of his candidacy. But as questions persist over the extent of vetting Ms. Palin was subjected to, aides to Mr. Obama reversed course Tuesday and sought to draw distinctions between the two vice presidential searches.
Mr. Plouffe said the selection of Mr. Biden came after more than two months of extensive examination that included separate meetings with a team of lawyers, the leaders of the search committee, top campaign aides and finally an interview with Mr. Obama. Mr. Plouffe said every immediate member of the Biden family, including his three children, his brother, his sister and his wife also met with members of the vetting team.
“If you’re fortunate enough to win, this person could become president and you better feel comfortable you got that right,” Mr. Plouffe said. “We have a history of vice presidents becoming president in this country. Hopefully, no matter who wins, that won’t be the case, but I think the process and the thought that goes into this is pretty important to voters.”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/plouffe-palin-choice-a-transparent-moment/
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