I'm bringing up an old topic here. The question of whether or not Sarah Palin was vetted by the McCain campaign has already been discussed plenty. My initial reaction was of course he did! Every candidate has a process in which they choose a running mate! With the revelations from "Troopergate", I'm not so sure anymore.

The investigation into Sarah Palin's firing of Walt Monegan began before John McCain announced her as his V.P. candidate. There are three possible reasons why John McCain would choose someone currently the center of an ethics investigationas a running mate:

1. He didn't know about the investigation - If this is the case, then it shows John McCain is very careless. That sort of thing would come up if Sarah Palin was applying for a security clearance. It is unconscionable to select someone as next-in-line for President of the United States without doing at least that minimum research.


2. He knew about the investigation, but figured she was innocent of any wrongdoing - If this is the case, then it shows John McCain cares more about ideology than ethics. We've already had eight years of congressmen and senators who cannot believe that anyone in their own party would be capable of doing anything wrong. Putting someone with this attitude in office will only enable more lawbreaking and abuse of power.


3. He knew about the investigation, but didn't care - If this is the case, then it shows very poor judgement from John McCain. He must have known the race was close. If he didn't care, then he didn't believe it would make him or his running mate look bad to the public. That is just foolish. If John McCain knew about this investigation, he should have said "Governor Palin, I'm sorry but with this ethics investigation going on it's too risky to have you on my campaign. Personally, I like you, but it would be harder to win the presidency with you as my running mate."

I still like John McCain. I even considered voting for him, until he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. However, any of the three cases I described above demonstrates that John McCain would make a poor president. If there is any other explanation for why he would choose a running mate that is the subject of an ethics investigation, I would like to hear it.