There are senior-level advisers in the campaign who opposed the pick and who are leaking details about the vetting process to undercut the pick.I never picked up on the idea that Palin for VP was divisive within the campaign.
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Never picked it up? Really? Living under a rock since Friday?
The division can most fruitfully be found within the increasingly inscrutable psychology of Senator McCain's mind.
halle309,
What have you seen from the campaign since Friday that showed they were less than enthusiastic about the pick? I mean, I kind of assumed they would have to be a bit split on it considering McCain made his decision a day after they met with her formally, but I haven't seen anything from the campaign itself.
According to the men up in the Big House we have to cease and desist from questioning Palin.
The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process," Schmidt said, lashing out at "the old boys' network" that he says runs media organizations.
...Schmidt later added that "I'm taking my toys and going home" and "My daddy can beat up your daddy"
Well, someone in McCain's campaign must have been leaking out the story that this was an impulsive last-minute decision made after McCain was told that pick Lieberman or Ridge would be disastrous... And, presumably the people leaking are doing this because they are angry and/or upset about the Palin pick.
All sorts of leak candidates. Steve Schmidt is, in fact, one of them!
Or, maybe the campaign is leaking the photoshop (or not?) picture of Gov. Palin toting a rifle while wearing a stars and stripes bikini?
I wonder what type of ratings the RNC will get for tonight's speech?
Q: How do you know when the campaign itself thinks it'll lose?
A: When people in the campaign spend less time trying to win than they do on trying to make sure somebody else gets blamed for the loss.
Seems kinda early for this dynamic to start up, but it is what it is.
We didn't need leaks. I think any reasonable observer could conclude from the obvious lack of real vetting and the on-purpose pro-choice veep leaks from a few weeks ago that he was mulling a pro-choice running mate and picked Palin at the last minute in a characteristic shoot from the gut move. So I agree with TNC here--no one needed a leak to see this stuff, and if the campaign is developing a slew of "this was not my fault" leaks, we're in late Clinton territory.
Pesto's right. And HRC managed to hold on for a long time after that dynamic set in....I expect the next 2 months to be about plausible deniability.
A few months back someone was writing about the McCain camp and that the people working for him would all find jobs next time with a respectable 3-5 point loss. But for McCain, there's no difference between a 1-point squeaker of a defeat and a 60-40 blowout--he's all in. That person was prescient.
Off Topic-
I read that the future Palin son-in-law is going to be at the convention tonight. Is that true? Can't be since they said it was a private matter, right? I reserve jokes until confirmation.
I think any reasonable observer could conclude from the obvious lack of real vetting and the on-purpose pro-choice veep leaks from a few weeks ago that he was mulling a pro-choice running mate and picked Palin at the last minute in a characteristic shoot from the gut move
Well, if that's all these stories are based on. I would say that was highly irresponsible reporting. Not to say that is something particularly uncommon.
Delivery drivers for Domino's Pizza are more thoroughly vetted than Sarah Palin.
It's priceless hearing all these Republicans whine like crybabies about the media being unfair to Palin.
If McCain had done a real vetting instead of a drive-thru window vetting, there would be no media frenzy. The Republicans are just embarrassed because the media now has to do the vetting that McCain's staff was either too lazy or too incompetent to carry out itself.
McCain is unready to be president and needs to retire to one of his 8 or 9 homes.
But Deborah, if you believe in your principles and believe they are better for the nation, then there is a huge difference between a 1 point squeaker and a 60-40 blow-out. Not in who occupies the white house, but in who wins all those down-ballot races, and the ability of your party with its principles to rebound.
If John McCain were putting country first, then he wouldn't risk a 20-point loss.
Deborah, the one exception to the "respectable loss" prediction is that I think that scenario assumes the continued stability of the GOP alliance. If Cato and Focus on the Family continue to think of themselves as Republican, then a big loss screws McCain's campaign staff.
But if a civil war breaks out -- if Tom Ridge and Olympia Snow and Jodi Rell get together with some Club for Growthers and say, "These fundamentalists are taking us down with 'em! Hell if I'm going to give up tax cuts and deregulation so that they can feel all self-righteous about 'unborn life'!" -- then the issue will be whose side you were on, not how big the loss was, the loss being blamed on the enemy faction.
Delivery drivers for Domino's Pizza are more thoroughly vetted than Sarah Palin. Palin is a pathetic joke.
After she and McCain get beat in Nov, she can go back to her hunting and fishing.
@peep: ?? I think it's two separate stories--people can deduce that the pick is controversial and last minute. (Unless they actually buy that stuff about the "need" to make a big surprise splash trumping fine details such as talking to anyone in the state of Alaska.) They'll deduce that no matter how many stalwart claims of detailed-yet-under-the-radar vetting the McCain camp issues. The McCain camp spouting a slew of "this pick? Totally not my fault" leaks is a separate and interesting story.
@JK: This week should have been the chance to show that Palin is not only qualified to be veep (44, citizen, held major elective office) but she is prepared to be veep--she has a thorough understanding of all the national issues that will be at play in this campaign and can explicate her and John's position on those issues through deep follow-up questions. Instead she's hidden away, cancelled appearances and has given no interviews--why wasn't she all over the Sunday shows?
@Curtis: I used to admire McCain; he has since switched positions on just about every position that once earned my respect. Torture was the kicker.
@Pesto: Interesting point. I think the signs of the alliance coming apart are there, but I don't want to get overoptimistic.
Good eyes, man.
You know, he did this with another one, come to think of it -- his 'twitter' the other day rhetorically asking "are Dems [here] passing out Eagleton talking points?"