McCain's Vetting Debacle

John McCain's vetting process with Sarah Palin is coming in for some real scrutiny. This thing is falling apart at the seams, revealing a rushed, haphazard process and some amazing facts about McCain's poor judgment.

It's been just a few days since he announced the newbie on the national stage. And if he failed to vet her, that doesn't mean the job won't be done. The blogs and now the more traditional media are digging into Palin's past, and finding things. One of the weirdest things is that she was a member of a party that has agitated for Alaskan independence, that Alaska secede from the union and be a separate country!

This is not vetting we can believe in.

As for Palin, how would it feel to know she's basically a pawn in this whole thing? That she wasn't picked because McCain really wanted her, but as a sop to the religious right. The whole thing is a matter of weakness on McCain's part. At this late stage he still had to shore up what should have been a rock solid base. So how does he do it? Pick someone who undermines the rest of his original argument against Obama.

Here's a great paragraph from a NY Times article on this whole debacle:

“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.”

A Republican close to the campaign said that. This is so pathetic: "John didn't get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge."

This is a man who thinks he has the judgment to be President of the United States. God help us.