McCain camp done discussing Palin vetting

UPDATED:

ST. PAUL, Minn. | Sen. John McCain’s camp said it was done discussing the vetting of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as the Republican’s vice presidential candidate prepared to give her speech here to the Republican National Convention.

Palin took a quick walk through the Xcel Energy Center this morning and stood behind the podium where she will deliver a prime time address Wednesday night. She told reporters that she was excited to give the speech, which is widely awaited.

Little known outside her state, Palin has been lashed by revelations about her—ranging from personal to professional—and McCain supporters are eager to make her first major appearance before a large national audience be a positive one.

For now, the campaign is shutting down its effort to quiet questions from the media about the thoroughness of the background checks it did of Palin before she was named McCain’s running mate.

“The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process,” said Steve Schmidt, a McCain senior adviser. “This nonsense is over. It is time to begin the debate about how to win the two wars this country is engaged in; how to make this country energy independent; and how to create jobs for American families that are hurting. The American people get to do the vetting now on Election Day November 4.”

He said Palin’s selection came “after a six-month long rigorous vetting process where her extraordinary credentials and exceptionalism became clear. This vetting controversy is a faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee for vice president of the United States who has never been a part of the old boys’ network that has come to dominate the news establishment in this country.”

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ST. PAUL, Minn. | As Hurricane Gustav released its grip on the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, was turning into Hurricane Sarah - a storm of charges and countercharges that further roiled the gathering.

The news was full of reports that Mrs. Palin supported Alaska’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” before she turned against it, that she had hired an attorney to defend her against charges of pressuring a state official to fire her former brother-in-law, that she had solicited millions of dollars in pork-barrel spending for the town where she once was mayor, and, in the biggest bombshell, her announcement that her single, 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant.

The McCain campaign fiercely denounced the criticisms, but none of this attention was welcome to a campaign trying to position the Alaska governor as a pro-family reformer eager to change the ways of Washington. Even some delegates to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul expressed concern amid hopes that her speech Wednesday would help put those worries to rest.

Former Rep. Charles F. Bass, president of the politically centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, said Mrs. Palin’s speech is “the No. 1 priority here at the convention, even more important than John McCain’s, because she needs to be introduced to the American people. That speech will either make people yawn or make them sit up in their chairs.”

At the same time, Mrs. Palin’s presence on the ticket has resulted in what might be the largest surge in McCain fundraising to date, $8 million over the Internet in the three days after she was announced Friday as Mr. McCain’s running mate.

She retained unstinting support from many evangelical and family values voters who had been skeptical of Mr. McCain’s candidacy.

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