McCain Didn’t Fail to Vet Palin, the Press Did

If giving a speech is the primary qualification for the Presidency, as the argument has gone in the case of Barack Obama, it seems that Sarah Palin has rare qualifications for that office, let alone the Vice-Presidency.  It puts the press’s recent failures in stark perspective.  John McCain’s judgment was correct, it was the press that’s judgment that was flawed.

 

 

In the last six days, the news has been dominated by the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice-President, and the coverage has been so outrageous that even Barack Obama has declared it to be over the line.  Why?  What is so different about this nomination? 

 

Having realized that their unfair coverage was winning more sympathy for Palin than it was losing, they have now settled on a new narrative.  They state that the selection of Palin was an impetuous pick out of the blue, and that the pick casts doubt on McCain’s judgment because Palin was supposedly not properly vetted.  This argument is absurd.  Let’s review the facts:

 

Palin is the governor of the largest state in the U.S.

 

Palin is the most popular governor in the United States. 

 

An online movement to draft Palin for VP has been active since July 2007.

 

Palin visited Iraq in July 2007.

 

Club for Growth started promoting Palin in September 2007.

 

National Review Online blogger were polled for their VP choice, and picked Palin in November 2007.

 

Michael Medved began noting Palin as a Vice-Presidential selection on December 30, 2007.

 

At this point, anyone who was paying attention had a good idea that Sarah Palin was emerging both as a rising star in the Republican Party and as a serious V.P. contender.  I certainly was aware of her at this point, and I am nobody. 

 

At this point, John McCain was aware of Palin also. 

 

On February 25, 2008, McCain met Palin for the first time at the Governors convention.  Ask yourself a question:  Do you really believe that the front runner for the Republican nomination for President would take time out from a campaign for anyone?  Don’t you think that he might have had a motive for seeking out this supposedly obscure governor?  The fact that McCain took time out of his schedule to meet with her at this time is the first obvious indication that McCain was beginning the vetting process. 

 

On May 29, 2008, McCain lead vetter Arthur Culvahouse was spotted in Juneau, Alaska by multiple sources, the same week that American Spectator began banging the drum for Palin.  Wonder what Culvahouse was doing there? 

 

By the time Palin made the cut from the top 20 to the top 6 candidates, a 40 page report based on public records and on online records of Alaska newspapers (contrary to published reports, these records are available online for those mentally equipped to click the “advanced search”  link) on Palin had been compiled by the vetters. At this point, Palin submitted her tax statements, responses to a detailed questionnaire, and credit check, and research by private detectives.  Through this process, she was in touch with McCain, both over the phone and in person. 

 

This is not being vetted? 

 

Every “scandal” about Palin was well known to anyone playing attention well before last weekend, with the exception of Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy, which was apparently common knowledge in Wasilla anyway.  Hell, they were all listed on freaking Wikipedia!

 

The reality of the situation is that there was a failure to vet Palin, and it was the press that failed.  As I noted, there was ample evidence that Palin was a serious contender to anyone paying attention.  Hell, Palin had even traveled to meet Cindy McCain in Aspen Colorado in mid-August and to Arizona to meet John McCain on August 28^th, and no one in the press noticed!  Regardless, the press was caught flat-footed. 

 

Whose judgment is flawed here?

 

The simple fact is that the press failed miserably to recognize that Palin was a front-runner for the nomination in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.  Hell, even I recognized that Palin was the most likely practical choice.

 

Because the press missed the obvious, they were embarrassed, and they decided to take it out on the Governor.  But let’s take a look at their performance on Friday:

 

They had no information on the governor of the largest state in the Union. 

 

They ignored sheaths of information on conservative blogs, publications, and radio programs that Palin was a serious contender. 

 

They failed to uncover information on Palin that was available through a Google search or a swing by Wikipedia. 

 

They had fewer pictures and footage of Palin than they have on Mullah Omar or Pol Pot.

 

They knew nothing about this woman!  How is that John McCain’s fault? 

 

In a classic case of projection, the Press took their lack of information to mean that John McCain knew nothing about Palin.  However, this lack of information did not prevent the Press from pulling a Clarence Thomas on Palin. 

 

The problem with the media is that they are fundamentally conservative, and not in the political sense of the term.  They are besieged by modernity, and hate anything new, and particularly hate anything that makes them do their job. 

 

This is reflected in their interpretation of events.  They support change, but only if it the same old change.  They fear bold leadership.  They are risk averse.  They prefer to play everything safe.  The modern press does not laud risk takers like Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, or Harry Truman.  They prefer cautious men, guys like Bill Clinton, self-obsessed Hamlets plotting the perfect mousetrap as the jaws of history close in on them.  They have become an aging feudal aristocracy, wallowing in lethargic luxury as the walls of their castles crumble around them.  Having lost their zeal for truth and their ideals of objectivity, they rail against the modern world, and the people the pretend to speak for.  Like antebellum aristocrats on mossy plantations, they seek to remake the world in their cynical, cowering image.  They have become, lazy, slothful, and incapable of performing even rudimentary diligence on the political leaders of their own country. 

 

The Palin pick exposed all of this, and the Press knew it.  But if they could not offer facts, they would make up for it by offering opinions, however ill founded or untrue.  And this is exactly what they did.  When confronted with something unexpected, lazy people fall back on what has worked before: 

 

1)      The Clarence Thomas lynching.

2)      The Dan Quayle meme.

3)      Everything that they have censored themselves from saying about Barack Obama.

 

The result has been a shower of irrelevant facts taken out of context, half-truths and outright lies.  How many times have you read in the coverage of the trooper “scandal” that the trooper in question tased his stepson, threatened to kill his father in law and drank on the job.  Would a responsible public official not look into the personnel policies of a police force that found this to be true but kept this guy on the job?  Or how about the Atlantic’s reporting of the “Bristol Palin is the real mother of Sarah Palin’s son” story?  Have they retracted that?  The facts here are simple: the Press had the option of doing their job, or making something up.  They chose the latter. 

 

What does the Palin pick tell us about John McCain’s judgment?  First, that he is a bold leader, a concept that used to be considered a good thing.  He’s decided that it is better to groom a Teddy Roosevelt than a Millard Fillmore.  Second, it tells us that he is dissatisfied with the status quo.  He wanted someone who would bring a breath of fresh air to Washington, and who would continue his effort at reform if something were to happen to him.  Sounds like good judgment to me.  Third, he is committed to changing his party.  There were many more mainstream Republicans available to him, but he decided that the mainstream was not good enough any more.  Again, superb judgment. Fourth, he decided to promote strong leadership over old leadership.  McCain has the experience, and Palin has even greater skills.  This is good for the country, and good judgment.  Fifth, McCain sees fiscal responsibility as the key to the next administration, and he picked a leader who can live this vision.  This is excellent judgment. 

 

The argument that Palin is too inexperienced to be VP is disingenuous to the point of dishonesty.  The fact is, many of our greatest Presidents began their national political careers as either VP candidates or second choices.  Abraham Lincoln (runner-up, 1856) Teddy Roosevelt (1900), Franklin Roosevelt (1924), John Kennedy (runner-up, 1956) were rising stars whose development as great leaders was accelerated in their apprenticeship as a VP candidate or contender.  Those who argue that McCain’s pick shows bad judgment ignore, willfully or otherwise, the lesson of history, and cling fast to the prejudice of ignorance.

 

The fact is this: Republicans have been looking at Palin as a VP contender for well over a year, John McCain did an extremely thorough vetting job on her, one that was in all likelihood more thorough than any in history, and the press is lashing out due to wounded ego and personal antipathy.  McCain’s judgment is sound, it is the press who did not do their job.