Why doesn't McCain campaign let
Posted By: mae on 2008-09-10
In Reply to: Democrats are afraid of Palin - me
her talk to the media!? Apparently they are afraid of her.
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Obama's campaign called McCain's campaign.
This was reported an hour or two before McCain had his little news conference. Shouldn't take to heart too much of what McCain says as he is a known liar.
He is McCain's campaign manager
He went to Freddie Mac and used McCain's name was given a consulting contract because FM did not want to offend McCain. No work was done, but payments contined to Rick Davis until last month. Wow, this is explosive stuff.
That was McCain's campaign promise...
McCain promised "line-by-line", Obama promised "reform." Also, it is against the constitution (via Supreme Court) for the president to "line-by-line" - they can only sign or veto - that's it.
Mccain current campaign manager
Seems Rick Davis was paid $30,000 a month - for five years - as president of "an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations," according to the International Herald Tribune.
McCain suspending campaign due to crisis
...sm
John McCain is looking like a leader today. I wonder if Obama will follow his lead.....
McCain suspending campaign due to crisis
Email|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political Editor September 24, 2008 03:07 PM
Saying that the Wall Street bailout plan is in jeopardy and the US economy at stake, John McCain said today that he is suspending his presidential campaign on Thursday and called for postponing the first presidential debate on Friday night.
"It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration’s proposal," he said in New York. "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time.
"Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.
"I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton just issued a statement: "At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama’s call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details."
"We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis."
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/mccain_suspendi.html
If McCain campaign strategy is so effective,
George Will –
- "McCain loses his head."
- "McCain childish, shallow, unfit for presidency."
- "McCain in a Glass House."
- "McCain flustered rookie playing in a league too high."
- Compares McCain to the ultimate drama queen (Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland) /"off with his head" mentality after McCain says that Chris Cox of the SEC should be "decapitated."
- "…McCain showed us his personality this week and made some of us fearful."
- "McCain shows he's not presidential."
- VP pick "female Sancho Panza."
Charles Krauthammer –
- McCain VP pick "near suicidal."
- "Bush Begat McCain."
- McCain's "hidden agenda: To kill the United Nations."
- McCain has "Tempted fate one time too many."
- "McCain is going down."
- "Obama will be president."
- "McCain's 100-year war."
- "How many Hail-Mary's can one man throw?"
Ross Perot –
- McCain's "classic opportunist, always reaching for attention and glory."
- Perot weighs in on the POW issue after paying for Carol McCain's medical bills following her horrible car wreck: After he came home, he walked with a limp, she [Carol McCain] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona [Cindy McCain, his current wife] and the rest is history."
- McCain, "unusually slick and cruel."
- Cindy bails John out of gambling debts.
William/Bill Kristol –
- Time for McCain to fire his entire campaign.
- McCain campaign is "stupid, pathetic, flailing."
- "Palin represents a cancer on the Republican Party. She is not even close to being qualified for the office she's seeking."
- McCain has "derangement syndrome."
- McCain should "stop unveiling gimmicky proposals every couple of days that pretend to deal with the financial crisis."
Joe McCain (John's brother) –
- Pleading with campaign advisors to change strategy: "Let John McCain be John McCain."
- Loosening the tight (campaign) message control is needed because it has become "counter-productive" and "counter-intuitive."
- The campaign needs to make new ads that show John "not as crank and curmudgeon."
- Decision to clamp down on press contact with intimates of the Arizona senator is "causing gangrene."
Ed Rollins –
- McCain's prospects on winning the presidency have "vanished."
- "You have to go give an alternative on the economy," To do otherwise could "give the Democrats not only the White House but sweeping congressional victories and a potentially filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate."
- Has voiced his concern over a possible Obama "landslide."
McCain cheapens his campaign with the plumber sm
McCain Pals With Plumber, Cheapens Campaign: Margaret Carlson
Commentary by Margaret Carlson
Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- You'd hope a process that we've had 40 years to improve would be better than our presidential debates. We've tweaked around the edges, and one moderator beats a panel of them. Bob Schieffer did a superior job and was persistent at Wednesday night's debate. Yet no moderator is ever going to get the candidates to talk to each other, much less look one another in the eye.
Why not no moderator? It worked for the Lincoln-Douglas debates, where people stood in the hot sun for hours to listen.
The most dispiriting thing to come out of the debate was the morning after. I woke to see Joe Wurzelbacher's street in Holland, Ohio, lit up like Times Square with network and cable satellite trucks clogging the place.
I thought the press was beyond 23 mentions of Joe the Plumber by one candidate and three by the other, while Asian markets were dropping 10 percent and the Dow has been diving.
Unless he starts making courtesy calls to fix the running toilets of the journalists making him famous, let's relegate Joe the Plumber back to the playroom with Bob the Builder or the 15- minute hall of fame with Harry and Louise and Ross Perot's crazy aunt in the attic.
Here's the reason for Joe: McCain has no argument left except that no one should have to pay taxes, and that Obama isn't one of us.
Distasteful Tactics
He gave up the experience argument by choosing Sarah Palin. By his own admission, McCain was never on top of the economy, and his performance since the financial crisis began, lurching from one pronouncement to another, proved his self-assessment right.
What McCain has instead are the distasteful tactics pressed on him by his consultants, the very ones who defamed him in his 2000 race for the presidency.
That's where ``Obama is palling around with terrorists'' comes from. It's why in the final debate, more time was spent on a radical bomb-thrower from the ླྀs, William Ayers, than Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his so-far-unsuccessful attempts to stop a market meltdown.
At first, I thought McCain was going to drop Ayers when he said he didn't care about ``an old, washed-up terrorist.'' Then he pivoted and demanded to know ``the full extent'' of his relationship with Obama.
Happy to Oblige
Obama was happy to oblige. Ayers, who committed his violent acts when Obama was a boy, is not and never has been involved in his campaign. Obama condemned his ``despicable acts'' and pointed out that he once served on a board with Ayers that was filled with Republican luminaries and funded by another one, Walter Annenberg. Thanks to McCain, Obama got to explain that before 30 million people.
McCain also gave Obama a chance to answer another charge. McCain is trying to make an oak out of Acorn, a community- organizing group that runs voter-registration drives. McCain said Acorn was about to perpetrate the biggest voter fraud in history, ``destroying the fabric of democracy.''
Acorn doesn't register voters; only state officials can do that. The false names collected are easy to spot. It's an urban myth that Donald Duck and Harry Potter end up voting. The ones that slip through are infinitesimal.
Old Hat
Obama explained his prior association. ``I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department'' enforcing the Illinois motor-voter law.
It's old hat for Republicans to cry voter fraud just the way Democrats cry voter suppression for purged lists, long lines and election-day challenges. If I show up on the list as Margaret B. Carlson but I've since dropped the B and have a driver's license that says Margaret Carlson, I might be turned away.
Most of McCain's anger was non-verbal -- in his tense, coiled body, eye-rolls, sniffing, and forced smiles. He had to know Ayers wasn't going to work. But there comes a moment when a candidate has to fluff up the base or find himself lonely.
Already, McCain has lost the support of some brand-name conservatives with his choice of Palin as a running mate. The latest is author Christopher Buckley, who had to resign from National Review, the magazine his father, William Buckley, founded, for his apostasy.
Following Rush
With Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity attacking Ayers for three weeks, McCain would have been fired by his own party before the election if he'd held back.
I'm not sure he can count on Palin anymore. She told Limbaugh she had nothing to lose, and she's acting like it. She was openly critical of McCain's decision to pull out of Michigan, and insisted that she and her husband would happily campaign there.
She's supposed to wield a hatchet, not throw bombs. The one genuine emotional moment in the debate came when McCain said how saddened he was about Representative John Lewis's reaction to the hateful language at Palin's rallies. Obama agreed that Lewis went too far in coupling McCain with George Wallace, but the rebuke stung.
Only a short time ago, McCain had named Lewis as one of his heroes.
Those writing McCain's obituary (which I'm not; he lost the debates not the election) wrongly say that Palin wins no matter what. The campaign has revealed a petty politician who misused her office, got revenge on her enemies, turned on fellow Republicans when it suited her ambitions, and violated ethics laws by trying to get her brother-in-law fired.
McCain's best chance of winning is by doing what he did when his campaign was pronounced dead last year. Fire people. Drop the cheap shots. Go out on your own and barnstorm the country. Be serious about the broken country President George W. Bush is leaving us. Reclaim the patrimony of the McCains and win -- or lose -- with honor.
Agreed 100%. If McCain can't take charge of his own campaign
!
McCain must be recovering from his campaign hangover
and rediscovering his intelligence.
FEC Queries McCain Campaign on 'Excessive Contributions'
McCain and Palin have also had to return donations. Are you conveniently unaware of that?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/fec_queries_mccain_campaign_on.html?hpid=topnews
McCain diverted money from campaign funds
McCain Campaign Paid Republican Operative
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4992730.ece
"Fooling people was the key to the job" according to one worker.
You are wrong. Karl Rove is working FOR the McCain campaign.
.
McCain doesn't need help looking bad.
nm
Now why doesn't McCain take that approach?
I've been leaning in favor of Obama these last few weeks and I have to say it's because McCain isn't offering me up any reasons to choose him. Why isn't he attacking Obama's "socialist" viewpoint instead of just trash-talking. I don't want to live in a socialist country, but I also have had enough of the Bush years. Why isn't McCain taking a stronger stance than what he has been.
While I don't want Obama overseeing our healthcare, I also don't want to pay McCain's taxes on it. We're already going to see a hike in our taxes from this bailout, which I think both candidates unwisely supported. Furthermore, I think we need to bring some of our troops back home, unless the Iraqi govt wants to start paying us for having them there. That war alone is costing us millions. On the other hand, I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons. And don't even get me started on Roe versus Wade. I'm pro-choice, but I'm not pro-mutilating babies that survived abortion. I believe abortion is a decision that needs to be made before 12 weeks' gestation. That's just my feeling and I know many will disagree.
And let's not kid each other about Palin. I personally don't care to be spoken to like I'm a redneck. It's very patronizing and I don't appreciate it. When it was first announced that she was the VP pick, I was very interested in learning more about her and also kind of psyched to get a woman in the White House. But after listening to her address the country, I felt like a kindergartener. She should find a better way to speak to us as American citizens, not rednecks from the backwoods.
McCain doesn't talk bad about democrats
because he gets his surrogates to do that, don't be so naive. He's another Bush and his ilk, he's just not as dumb, which is even scarier.
Voting for McCain doesn't make you a republican
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=2805&name=Bush-Family-Bankrupt-Companies
One of the things I disagree with McCain...he doesn't know a socialist...sm
when he sees one.
But hey, that falls into his 50% of stuff I don't agree with...hehe
Yeah, I know...if McCain doesn't win the election, he'll probably steal it
The theory behind democracy and two parties is after two terms of one party, the other party comes into office for no more than two terms. It is so the two parties meet in the moderate middle and no extremes of either are reached. Far right and far left wingnuts take the country to such extremes, it destabilizes the masses and civil disorder will erupt due to the stark contrast between the two parties extreme beliefs. Well, I think that as I have viewed all the posts, there is reason to be concerned about the educational system in this country and what people rely on, progress or tradition.
But, bottom line is the country is in a state of turmoil like never seen since 1929 and for that very reason, everyone should want to vote for the other party unless they are wealthy and want tax breaks. Which is always the case.
Home schooling by mothers who aren't able to educate and lackluster teachers have added to this country of people who are so devisive, they appear to hate each other. They say a common enemy brings people together, but even with the corruption before us, lies and deceit by the GOP, costing us all so much for years to come, hasn't done the job. It is pretty hopeless.
Ayers doesn't regret the bombings, doesn't feel like they did enough sm
In a story that appeared in the Times on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Ayers told a reporter while promoting his memoir "Fugitive Days": "I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough."
Mr. Ayers, now a professor of education in Chicago, was a founder of the Weather Underground, which bombed government buildings in the early 1970s. He was indicted on conspiracy charges that were thrown out for prosecutorial misconduct.
He served with Mr. Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a charitable organization, and, along with his wife, the former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn, hosted Mr. Obama at his home in 1995 when he was running for state office.
Mr. Obama has called Mr. Ayers "somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old."...so because it was 40 years ago, and Ayers is still proud of what he did, how is it justifiable for a US presidential candidate to now be friends with this man? Unless he has the same view of America.
Let me rephrase that. It doesn't *seem like* my vote doesn't count...sm
It does not count because its in the bag that our 3 electoral votes will go to the republican party.
Why are you McCain people so desperate? You are just like McCain. No plan. Just criticism of the
other candidate. I guess you want the same old thing we have had for the past 8 years. God forbid McCain win with that wild woman, Palin.
He is still around, only with a new campaign. sm
See campaignforliberty.com. We have more than 100,000 members now and growing.
Even if they cannot vote for him, they should at least listen to what he has to say about the Fed and the economy, and people need to get involved. He is an economics genius. McCain did not even know what the PPT was when Dr. Paul asked him a question about it during one of the debates.
America has gone so far off track from what it is supposed to be and people are so uninformed, I honestly think they did not understand what he was trying to say. They labeled us as a fringe element for wanting to restore the Constitution. How pathetic is that? He was the thinking person's candidate.
Campaign
During my search for the Obama "messiah" discussion, I am just appalled at the nastiness of this campaign. As an INDEPENDENT, voting for Mr. Independent, my unbiased opinion is that the Republicans are running a nasty campaign based on half-truths and no truths. Just look at the nastiness on this board if anyone DARES speak a favorable word about Obama.
My intention this minute is to do a write-in vote for Lou Dobbs. Should it look as if McCain is going to win, I WILL switch and vote AGAINST John McCain and if that means a vote for Obama, well, so be it. I have already stated my objections to Obama and got myself in a peck of trouble for doing it!
This campaign
You know, I have never been so concerned about our election or our country in all my life. This really weighs heavy on me and I so hate seeing people on this board and others as well as people I come in contact every day so biased one way or the other they won't even begin to listen to any questions about their candidate. There are plenty of things about both candidates that really concern me. One thing that has been overlooked is that Congress plays a big part in what a president can and cannot do, although both the Republican led Congress and the present Democrat led Congress are failing the American people. It is my feeling they should have put the brakes on George W. Bush on many different occasions but instead they have given him free reign.
I agree with Lou Dobbs almost 100%. I agree that I'm for LEGAL immigration but ILLEGAL is quite another thing. Our wages are going down and our cost of living is going up, in large part due to the influx of illegals overloading our schools, our ERs and other public services. This is particularly true here in my part of the country where there are big businesses that demand the low-wage workers and our senator and representative vote against the will of the majority of citizens because the big biz is who owns them. I wonder if Lou Dobbs were elected president, what kind of president would he be. I was hoping he would run. At least we have a news commentator who tells it as it is on both sides.
It really concerns me that posters on this board are so busy fighting over the candidate they can't even discuss the issues. I always thought MTs were of above average intelligence but reading some of the posts here, I'm starting to rethink that thought. I've been out and around all day and came home looking forward to seeing what was new and danged if the fighting, backbiting and nastiness here isn't worse than it was this morning.
Do you really want to get into campaign fraud?
You really don't want to, because the left has a corner on that market One example is the DNC registering dead people in Detroit. You know, we could tit for tat all day long about these things, but the conspiracy that elections are fixed is just that, a conspiracy.
Your energies would best be served by trying to help the the schizophrenic Democratic party finding a unified vision and an action plan other than dissing the Republicans. It's not our fault you're losing it's yours. The article you posted proves that energies are being wasted on the wrong things. But really, I don't care if you lose just so you do.
I know his campaign is in big trouble.
Seems to me he thought he found something and before confirming it, he started appearing on talk shows. At the most, he knowingly lied and wanted to tell his base what they wanted to hear.
At the least, he's reckless and sloppy in his approach to things.
I suppose the true test of his character will be if he comes clean and admits he was wrong.
Other than that, I find it increasingly difficult on a daily basis to understand why some of these politicians do what they do, both Republican and Democrat alike.
sorry...I was repeating what his campaign was saying...
only of course they said African American, not black. Yes, I am fully aware he is biracial. But he himself identified himself as "black." Remember the "oh by the way he happens to be black" comment. He does not view himself as biracial. And whether or not he is black or biracial or white does not matter to me. Your opinion and mine differ. I do not think he is capable. There is a difference in running the country and showing up and voting present most of the time. I am not bashing him. It is just a fact...he has absolutely no foreign policy experience, and while Biden does, is he going to take Biden with him when he meets leaders of other countries? It IS a legitimate concern. Forget it is Obama. Think of him as Joe Blow from Kokimo. He doesn't have the experience, and being a great orator in prepared speeches will not get him far in the foreign policy area. And in the state this world is in now...we need someone with that experience...not in the second chair. In the FIRST chair. Just my opinion.
Wow....you should be in Barack's campaign...
you took one sentence out of what I said and spun it so hard I'm dizzy. LOL. How you got that I made an assumption that noncaucasian nonchristian people are incapable of thinking for themselves. You are the one who suggested that anyone who hates does so by choice because they won't think for themselves...?
Obama campaign
Obama opened a campaign headquarters in our town and one of the first things they did was to put a large poster in the window stating "Felons CAN vote." After an uproar, the sign was taken down, but it left a bad taste in a lot of mouths.
Campaign was already dead. That's why
nm
New campaign slogan: It's all about the O
nm
Different if it comes from a supporter or the campaign....
neither McCain or Obama can control what supporters do...but this ad was from the Obama campaign. And it flies in the face of everything Obama said he was NOT going to do.
Not as much as putting out an ad from your campaign...
with stamp of approval on it. That says more, in my opinion.
As far as Jewish people...Sarah Palin is going to the protest but on by Jewish leaders protesting Ahmadinejad addressing the UN...so McCain's campaign is supporting Jewish people there in a very public way. That also says a lot.
Coz that is illegal under campaign
finance law. Maybe McCain can allow homeless to stay in one of his 11 homes when he and Cindy are out flying in their personal jet?
He's not divisive, like you and your campaign
00000000000
How seriously should Americans take a campaign
Barack Obama was born in the United States and he is going to be your next president. Get over yourself.
NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN ADS
Obama has had 61% of his ads negative throughout his ENTIRE campaign........... McCain only for one week.
Obama spent 47 million on negative ads.....McCain 27 million.
Yea, poor 'ole Obama....... just keeping believing in this guy. He'll sell you to the middle east and you'll be feeding their camels.
It was a campaign mistake for her to go on
She wasn't funny. They made fun of her. I thought it was humiliating for her.
Maybe it's the way he and his campaign exploit POW
Besides that, GP is not the only one who takes issue with the POW experience. Ross Perot has a thing or two to say about McC, having footed the medical bills for Carol after her accident and watching McC trade her in on a new model when he returned, then turn around and apologizes on account of running for office. His own behavior goes a long way to cheapen the sacrifices he made.
More like a plant from the O campaign
What a better way to get a "racial thing" going. All the racial stuff is coming from the O side. McCain and Palin don't go there, but O sure knows how to use the race card.
Did you ever think it could be campaign fatigue on the
parts of both Palin and McCain. If that's a plausible excuse for Obama's "mistake," then why not the other mistakes, too.
They are a gimmick - just like his whole campaign was
He doesn't need those ugly fake coins to cheapen anything. They did that with their phony campaign promises and lies. Putting his picture up next to Washington & Kennedy is a disgrace, or as you said it a joke!
I noticed that myself. Yet during the campaign,
did he bring up his father at all? I don't remember him doing that. Now that he is the prez, he brings up a father he only met once or twice?
But face it, it was a half decent speech. If half the people that were there listen and learn, it would be worth it.
That was CAMPAIGN not COMPLAIN..(nm)
He also promised during his campaign that
any bill would be available online for 5 days for the public to look at before he signed it...of course, he's not doing that with the stimulus bill. Hmmm, wonder why? Boy Wonder is slowly shedding his Superhero suit and revealing himself.
Right, Obama said already during his campaign that
he will bring troops home from Iraq and send more troops to Afghanistan, because there the Taliban is gaining strength again, also Pakistan is increasingly involved, as the Taliban are hiding inside Pakistan, alongside the border.
It 'sizzles' in Afghanistan.
Campaign promises
I didn't vote for Obama, but didn't really like McCain much better. I feel that too many politicians say whatever it takes to get elected and then do whatever they want once getting into office. This goes for Congress, too, and I agreed with the other poster that said Congress is a big part of not letting presidents fullfill thier campaign promises. But it is a combination of both because they all promise basically the same things.
It would be interesting to see if Reagan kept his promises - I was just a young'un then and didn't really pay too much attention to politics - I see a research project! =)
By the way, I doubt you hear it enough, but thank you for being a part of our military and for your service overseas. Our men and women in the military are our country's greatest asset and are definitely people for our country to be proud of.
It's not a smear campaign and it's not a failure
The reality of what Mrs. or should I say Ms., Sheehan is doing speaks for itself. The Swift Boat thing surely didn't get your boy Kerry in the office now did it?
Geez.....Obama has a CAMPAIGN ad....
about issuing a windfall profits tax on oil companies (private profits, earned) and redistributing that to people as a freebie who did nothing to earn it. I didn't make that up. His campaign ad says it very clearly, in his own voice, and then it says "I am Barack Obama and I approved this message." An yes, they run the ad on Fox too, as well as most of the networks.
I have read his tax plan. What I didn't read is how he intends to pay for it. I would be asking the same questions if Hillary was running and saying the same things. But she isn't. He is.
His campaign has released several statements
stating that she was vetted. Just go to cnn.com and you can read them all there.
Here is a partial article (also explains that this was a rumor...that she had not been vetted:
Nicolle Wallace, a senior McCain adviser, told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday that Palin disclosed her daughter's pregnancy during the vetting process, and that the McCain campaign had been forced to reveal the pregnancy publicly Monday because of "lewd and outrageously false rumors" spread by "Democratic-leaning blogs and a few in the mainstream" media. She did not identify them.
Since McCain publicly disclosed his running mate on Friday, the notion of a shoddy, rushed review has been stoked repeatedly.
First, a campaign-issued timeline said McCain initially met Palin in February, then held one phone conversation with her last week before inviting her to Arizona, where he met with her a second time and offered her the job Thursday.
Then came the campaign's disclosure that Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant. The father is Levi Johnston, who has been a hockey player at Bristol's high school, The New York Post and The New York Daily News reported in their Tuesday editions.
In addition, the campaign also disclosed that Palin's husband, Todd, then age 22, was arrested in 1986 in Alaska for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Shortly after Palin was named to the ticket, McCain's campaign dispatched a team of a dozen communications operatives and lawyers to Alaska. That fueled speculation that a comprehensive examination of Palin's record and past was incomplete and being done only after she was placed on the ticket.
Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser, said no matter who the nominee was, the campaign was ready to send a "jump team" to the No. 2's home state to work with the nominee's staff, work with the local media and help handle requests from the national media for information, and answer questions about documents that were part of the review.
At several points throughout the process, McCain's team warned Palin that the scrutiny into her private life would be intense and that there was nothing she could do to prepare for it.
Culvahouse disclosed details of his examination in a half-hour interview with the AP.
First, a team of some 25 people working under Culvahouse culled information from public sources for Palin and other prospective candidates without their knowledge. For all, news reports, speeches, financial and tax return disclosures, litigation, investigations, ethical charges, marriages and divorces were reviewed.
For Palin specifically, the team studied online archives of the state's largest newspapers, including the Anchorage Daily News, but didn't request paper archives for Palin's hometown newspaper. "I made the decision that we could not get it done and maintain secrecy," Culvahouse said.
Reports, 40-some pages and single-spaced, on each candidate then were reviewed by McCain, Schmidt, campaign manager Rick Davis and top advisers Mark Salter and Charlie Black.
Among the details McCain's campaign found: Palin had once received a citation for fishing without a license.
Palin, like others on the short list, then was sent a personal data questionnaire with 70 "very intrusive" questions, Culvahouse said. She also was asked to submit a number of years of federal and state tax returns, as well as any controversial articles she had written or interviews she had done. The campaign also checked her credit.
Then, Culvahouse conducted a nearly three-hour-long interview.
He said the first thing she volunteered was that her daughter was pregnant, and she also quickly disclosed her husband's DUI arrest.
Early on, the public search unearthed details of the investigation by the Republican-controlled legislature into the possibility that Palin ordered the dismissal of Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.
Culvahouse said that he asked follow-up questions during the interview, and "spent a lot of time with her lawyer" on the matter.
"We came out of it knowing all that we could know at the time," he said.
As for the financial records review, Culvahouse said: "It was very clean. We had no issues there."
Throughout the process, the campaign said, Davis had multiple conversations with Palin.
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