Because the Way You Get Your Relationship With the Washington Media Off to a Really Good Start Is To Lie To Them, Right Off the Bat

Sarah Palin said this at her coming-out campaign event:

And I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress -- I told Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that bridge to nowhere.

Here's what she said when the bridge appropriation was actually before Congress:

I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.

It appears her opposition to the bridge welled-up primarily after it became clear that Alaska was going to have to pay for the bridge on its own, and she took great pains at the time to assure her constituents that she wasn't going to slow the federal gravy train that makes Alaska one of our biggest pork barrel welfare states.

Look, this isn't a big deal, all by itself. Politicians fudge like this all the time. But doing it on the first day, when anyone with a lick of experience would understand that a hundred investigative reporters are on airplanes headed for Alaska right now to look at everything that has anything to do with her governance or her life...well, starting out with a little fib just isn't smart.

I'll tell you the truth: I've got a bad feeling about this. Comparisons with Dan Quayle are easy, but my first thought when I heard this was Tom Eagleton, who was George McGovern's running mate for exactly 18 days before the media uncovered juicy personal details McGovern's investigators missed. Sarah Palin seems likable enough, and I enjoy the idea of having a Vice President whose spouse is a professional snowmobile racer. Their family seems really, really sweet.

But this is high-stakes politics, and she's come out of nowhere to secure a nomination backing up a cancer survivor who'd be oldest President ever elected. Despite the vast experience Republicans are touting, she's never been through the kind of scrutiny she's going to go through in the next few weeks. Mass media careers are made chasing down dirt, and you know every reporter in the world understands that knocking a V.P. candidate out of the box can mean the difference between a career of page three bylines in Des Moines and a permanent seat next to David Gergen on CNN's election night panel of experts.

Starting things out with a lie isn't going to buy her any good will.

I hope Team McCain did a good job of vetting Governor Palin. I hope they looked in every corner and asked every uncomfortable question and checked every fact, because right now people with a lot more dirt under their fingernails than any team of campaign lawyers are descending on Palin's little home town, raking for muck. In a couple of weeks, they're going to know every rumor, every grudge, every short tip she left at the diner.

I hope she doesn't end up like Eagleton did. I hope she doesn't end up, as my mother used to say, a grease spot on the highway.

Comments

[Lee]

"I hope Team McCain did a good job of vetting Governor Palin."

Actually, that thought did cross my mind as well. I am assuming (since I am assuming that the McCain campaign is competent) that every contingency of dirt has been gone over. That is why the whole potential trooper scandal thing doesn't really bother me It's because I assume there was both a sit down with a McCain rep, and a bunch of private dicks looking around on the McCain camp's behalf.

And I'll tell you this right here, if there is some skeleton in the closet, especially one that should have been relatively easy to red flag, then McCain deserves to lose this campaign.

We'll see.

[Pursuit]

I hope so too. Of course, compared to lying about your record and plagiarism it really doesn't amount to much. I just hope she doesn't say something like, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,"

Really, you guys are making this easy! Try breathing into a paper bag, I think you all are just a little scared and thinking irrationally.

[Tom W]

Beyond what you've noted, there are web communities like Kos and Talking Points Memo that have a partisan agenda and ask locals what they know or what they can dig up. And if the network news ignores it, it will still be aired by Olbermann or Maddow.

I don't know how the McCain campaign could have vetted her without anybody knowing that she was being vetted.

[Heath]

Why all the outrage? I thought the vice-presidency wasn't "worth a pitcher of warm spit."