McCain met Palin once before yesterday?

Posted: Friday, August 29, 2008 5:17 PM by Mark Murray

From NBC's Mark Murray and NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
The McCain camp has just released a tick-tock of how the Palin pick came to be. And according to it, McCain had met her just one time prior to yesterday.

The tick-tock from McCain communications director Jill Hazelbaker:
"John McCain first met Governor Sarah Palin at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington in February of 2008 and came away extraordinarily impressed. John McCain followed her career and admired her tenacity and her many accomplishments. She was scheduled for a high profile speaking role at our convention and included in the VP selection process because of his admiration for her strong reform credentials. Last Sunday, Governor Palin and John McCain had a conversation over the phone. Governor Palin was at the Alaska State Fair, and John McCain was at his home at Phoenix. Previously, Rick Davis, John McCain’s campaign manager, had also been in regular contact with the Governor as part of the on-going selection process. This past week, Governor Palin arrived with Kris Perry in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Wednesday evening. Upon arrival, Governor Palin and her longtime aide Kris Perry met with Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter of the McCain campaign at Mr. Bob Delgado’s home in Flagstaff. Mr. Delgado is the CEO of the Hensley corporation, which is Mrs. Cindy McCain’s family business. On Thursday morning, Governor Palin and staff were joined by Mrs. Cindy McCain and later joined by John McCain at the McCain family home in Sedona, Arizona. At approximately 11:00 a.m. Thursday August 28, 2008, John McCain formally invited Governor Sarah Palin to join the Republican ticket as the vice presidential nominee on the deck of the McCain family home."

"Later that morning, John McCain departed for Phoenix and Governor Palin departed with staff to Flagstaff, Arizona. Governor Palin, Kris Perry, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter proceeded to the Manchester Inn and Conference Center in Middleton, Ohio. They were checked into the hotel as the Upton Family. While there, Governor Palin’s children, who had been told they were going to Ohio to celebrate their parents’ wedding anniversary, were told for the first time that their mother would be a nominee for Vice President of the United States of America."

"Today, John McCain was proud to announce that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a proven-reformer, will share a partnership with him to shake things up in Washington and to make government more effective for American families."

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Comments

Pat, Boston, MA (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:39 PM)

Pat:

Pat Buchanan is not always there (upstairs) and often laughs at himself for some of the ridiculous and outrageous statements he makes. I wouldn't give anything Pat Buchanan says the time of day. Palin is not seen by the Republicans as a rising star. Those are bogus statements to try and downplay this most serious error of judgement they know McCain has made. They are about to spend millions on a Convention and it is too late to replace John McCain. So what else are they then going to say about Palin. What can they say, except to try and salvage this mess by calling her a rising star.

C A, Tuscaloosa, AL (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:51 PM)

Looks like an even match now
Obama- very long with no experience took an old running mate with some experience

Mccain- very old with some experience took a young running mate with no experience

It's gonna be an even game of checkes this november

Sam Ryley, NY (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:52 PM)

But guys, she's a TOMATO! That's gotta be worth something, right?
Hey CIndy- hang on to y' old fool tightly now, heah? After all, he DID pull a "Clinton" when his 1st wife was still around, right?

Buzz (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:52 PM)

An Insult to Clinton Supporters

McCain’s pick for Vice President is an obvious case of pandering to Hillary Clinton’s former supporters. Nice try. Luckily, I have faith that these intelligent women have the wisdom to see through McCain’s tactics and will not vote away the hard-fought gains that women have made simply to have a woman on the ticket. Palin does NOT support the right of a woman to have control over her own body, and both she and McCain would appoint Supreme Court justices who represent the radical right and would overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Palin, whose husband works for an oil company, still believes that we can drill our way out of our energy crisis. She wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, despite the fact that it would devastate the habitat of many fragile Arctic species, despite the fact that sixty percent of the caribou-based diet of many indigenous groups comes from the wildlife that lives on ANWR, and despite the fact that the amount of oil in this National Wildlife Refuge is not large enough to have an affect on the global price of oil.

McCain’s choice of Palin proves that he does not respect the intelligence of Clinton’s supporters who will not accept a right-wing substitute, merely because she is a woman and completely negates McCain’s assertion that he is a friend of the environment. Furthermore, it shows that McCain is a reckless decision maker who is willing to put the nation at risk with a Vice President who has no knowledge of or experience in foreign policy simply in order to pander to a group of voters who will never vote for a man at the top of the ticket that has agreed with the failed policies of Bush and Cheney 90% of the time.

Jodi Franks, Puyallup, WA (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:52 PM)

Governor Sarah "Pawn" Palin. McCain and the Grand OLD Party has just sealed this woman's fate and virtually ended her political career as she knows it. What LITTLE regard McVain actually shows toward women!!!

Catie MacKrell, Conroe TX (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:52 PM)

She supported PAT BUCHANAN in 1996!!! Nuff' said!

I think McCain KNOWS he has lost this election and was determined to have his name go down in history - so he picked the first woman in the GOP to be VP.

This is so CONDESCENDING to Hillary supporters like me. This woman is pro life to the extreme - even in cases of rape and incest. She supports creationism being taught in schools. She is the antithesis of what Hillary believed. I want a woman to be President or VP someday - but NOT A PAT BUCHANAN believing woman!!!

Sheila, Bucks County, PA (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:53 PM)

In over 24 years since the Dems elected a woman as the VP nominee, not once has the Republican party ever had a female candidate for the VP slot. Now they pick Sarah Palin - someone most people outside of Alaska had never heard of until today. The question is why. The most logical reasons to me are that he is attempting to pander to disaffected Hillary supporters or that he is trying to boost his credibility with evangelicals.

I don't know about the evangelicals but I think Hillary supporters will see through the ruse.

rhoward, Elgin, SC (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:53 PM)

WOW!!! McBush is out touch and has terrible judgement. But we alraedy knew that!!! This just confirms it.

Obama/Biden '08

Eric, Indiana (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:53 PM)

Did anyone else see McCain glaring at Palin's behind as she was giving her speech? I guess we now know what made her "qualified" to be the VP. I suppose that if she ever needs to persuade Putin to see her point of view, she can do a lap dance for him.

Ron Jeffers, Arizona Independent (Sent Friday, August 29, 2008 5:53 PM)

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