First, let me get something out of the way:

Things that are not any of our business:

• Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy

Thank you. Anyone who thinks otherwise can just bug off. No teenage girl deserves to have her problems broadcast on national TV, even if her mother is the Republican VP pick.

But there are some things that are our business regarding John McCain's irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin. For example, on the aforementioned story: Why did the McCain campaign claim that they knew about this pregnancy before they chose her, when Palin's own press secretary didn't know a thing about it two days ago? (If you think I'm undermining my first point, remember the words of the "Impeach Clinton" crowd: it wasn't the sex but the lying.) Another good question: Why did Sarah Palin belong to an Alaskan secessionist party back in the 1990s, and does she still sympathize with their "Alaska First" views (which would, of course, contrast with McCain's own "Country First" campaign)? Why did Palin have to lawyer up today in the Troopergate scandal in Alaska?

But those questions are all trivial and meaningless, really (except for perhaps the last one, which might indicate her willingness to abuse government power for personal vendettas... which isn't necessarily a dealbreaker in the Bush-McCain era). They're fodder for the bloggers and the talking heads for a few days, after which they fade into oblivion. The question we should be asking, the key to the whole thing, is this: why does all of this seem to be taking the McCain campaign by surprise?

If Sarah Palin were an applicant for just about any government job that's going to have access to the most classified information we have (as the VP has), she would have to go through an incredibly thorough, invasive, and stringent vetting process. She would have to list just about everyone she's ever known and anything that could even potentially be used against her. This isn't just to root out potential spies; this kind of background checking is done because people with access to that kind of classified information can be blackmailed or threatened if there are skeletons in their closets. It's for the protection of the country and the information, and I for one am glad that everyone with high clearance has been checked out by the appropriate government agency.

However, an applicant for the vice presidency cannot constitutionally be held to any standard other than that he/she be 35 years old and a natural-born citizen.

Thus, if the McCain campaign is putting "Country First" and not "Election First," as they claim, wouldn't they want to vet a person who would have access to the most classified information we have at least as much as an agency like the CIA, NSA, FBI, etc. would? Hell, even if they are putting "Election First," wouldn't they want to do that kind of vetting, as scandals like these could threaten to derail the candidacy?

What does it say about John McCain's decision-making ability that he would make this choice - which is, we should note, the first presidential choice a candidate makes, and perhaps the most important - without doing his homework? What does it say about his judgment that the decision appears to have been made before the candidate was vetted?

Most importantly - do we really want that kind of decision-making judgment out of the person with his finger on the flashing red button?

I sure as hell don't.

Labels: John McCain, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin