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It seems it is finally open season on John McCain in the Mainstream Media for his poor judgement in his irresponsible decision to chose Sarah Palin as a running mate.

On TV

CNN





Scarborough (H/T wordie):

And on the News sites in America:

The New York Times here and this is David Brooks speaking:

He really needs someone to impose a policy structure on his moral intuitions. He needs a very senior person who can organize a vast administration and insist that he tame his lone-pilot tendencies and work through the established corridors — the National Security Council, the Domestic Policy Council. He needs a near-equal who can turn his instincts, which are great, into a doctrine that everybody else can predict and understand. Rob Portman or Bob Gates wouldn’t have been politically exciting, but they are capable of performing those tasks. Palin, for all her gifts, is not. She underlines McCain’s strength without compensating for his weaknesses. The real second fiddle job is still unfilled.

and here:

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin. […]“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.”

The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen says:

One of the great sights of American political life — a YouTube moment if ever there was one — was to see the doughboy face of Newt Gingrich as he extolled the virtues of Sarah Palin, a sitcom of a vice presidential choice and a disaster movie if she moves up to the presidency: “She’s the first journalist ever to be nominated, I think, for the president or vice president, and she was a sportscaster on local television,” Gingrich said on the “Today” show. “So she has a lot of interesting background. And she has a lot of experience. Remember that, when people worry about how inexperienced she is, for two years she’s been in charge of the Alaska National Guard.”

and adds, rather pointedly:

It’s a pity Gingrich was not around when the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known by his nickname Caligula, reputedly named Incitatus as a consul and a priest. Incitatus was his horse.

It doesn’t stop here, there’s the European media, too:

The Times calls her half baked Alaskan and concludes:

Mrs Palin’s selection has made for great political theatre. It is also profoundly irresponsible. This was Mr McCain’s first Cabinet-level appointment, and it reflects as vividly as any of his battles over campaign finance reform the maverick tendencies that continue to define him. Such tendencies are of huge value on the American football field, in certain corporate settings and, indeed, in the US Senate. Whether they belong in the Oval Office at a time of grave and unfamiliar challenges to Western civilisation is far less clear.

The Telegraph likens the frantic post factum vetting to a political hit squad:

Senior allies of the Republican presidential nominee insisted that the team of press officers will handle the worldwide media frenzy surrounding the selection of only the second woman ever on a presidential ticket. But they also admitted that they have operatives on the ground in Alaska to probe more deeply into her background. Democrats detected a whiff of panic in the McCain camp, amid growing claims that Mrs Palin’s personal history was not properly vetted before Mr McCain announced his pick on Friday.

I think it is more than a whiff of panic. I bet, they didn’t even google her name before the announcement. They couldn’t have, because if they had they would have come up with what we have have come up with:

About the Independence Party of Alaska

About the Issues

About the Real Sarah Palin

About Who Is Sarah Palin

About Governor Palin and Creationism

and this, this and much more

I’d say we vetted Governor Palin here and as far as I am concerned, this appointment is an insult to every American voter.

UPDATE: More international media comments in Open Season II

