It's almost like buying a car:
The campaign secretly flew Palin into Dayton last night. She and McCain met privately for a couple of hours. McCain concluded she would "shake up the system" and was "a maverick," qualities he believed Lieberman would have brought to the ticket. But she also would appeal to conservatives -- which Lieberman most certainly would not have done.
After their meeting, McCain concluded he was comfortable with his choice. He notified Pawlenty this morning that he was going in a different direction.
So (a) when the McCain campaign on Wednesday said that their boss had made a decision, they were wrong or lying; and (b) McCain's decision didn't come until after Obama's speech.
It was all about politics. Putting. Country. Last.
Update (11:21PM): In the comments of another post, erykah pointed out this incredible statement by Charlie Black, John McCain's closest adviser.
She's going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long.
The issue isn't so much the part about doctors (McCain is 72, and his mom is still alive at 96, though his dad passed away at 70), it's that Black essentially accepts the argument that she isn't qualified to be president.
If he gets elected, McCain's doctors had better have been right.
© Jed Lewison