McCain's VP:

Face It: They Didn't Vet Her

Earlier I noted Andrea Mitchell's reference to reports that the McCain camp had just sent a team of GOP lawyers up to Alaska to do what I guess you'd call a post-vetting of Sarah Palin. Now George Stephanopoulos appears to have more. George says the McCainers are sending a "rapid response team of about ten operatives that includes lawyers" to do the aforementioned deeper vet. A lot of attention is being given to Gov. Palin's daughter's situation. The much bigger deal is the expanding trooper-gate investigation, the fact that Palin lied in her Friday speech about her purported opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere, her apparent former membership in the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, and more. Individually, you can come to your own judgment about how consequential these stories are. What they show pretty clearly now -- in addition to the news that the McCain campaign is only now sending in a vetting team -- is that John McCain didn't do any serious vetting of Palin before he invited her to join his ticket and, he hopes, become Vice President of the United States.

Fundamentally, of course, this is about John McCain. And the real issue here is what this slapdash decision says about his judgment.

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Palin reaches out to possible high school drop-outs

Governor wants Alaska students to call her first

ANCHORAGE - Gov. Sarah Palin is reaching out to any Alaska high school student thinking about dropping out. The governor wants those students to call her and talk about their options first.
The offer comes in reaction to a recent study that labeled seven Alaska high schools "dropout factories."

"I'd remind the kids that no matter where they are in life - (maybe) in circumstances that probably aren't ideal - that there is no circumstance that they're in that is insurmountable or would necessitate them just giving up," Palin said.

Among the schools given the dubious distinction were the high schools from which the governor, her son and her husband have graduated - Wasilla High and Dillingham High.

Palin's 16-year-old daughter, Bristol, is a junior at Wasilla.

"Every little bit is going to help," Loren Berkoski, the acting superintendent in Dillingham, said in reaction to the governor's offer.

The Johns Hopkins study was based on tracking senior classes for three years in a row - 2004, 2005 and 2006. The "dropout factory" designation went to the schools where 60 percent or less of the students who started as freshmen advanced to their senior year.

Alaska school administrators pointed out it did not take into account students who transferred to other schools during those years.

The governor is encouraging any student around the state who is thinking about quitting to call her first.

"I would also speak to them about the practical solutions out there. There is so much to be gained, of course, by staying in school. But we do have to speak to the kids about the different practical choices that we have," she said Friday. "We are very blessed in Alaska to have so many options for a student who may not be fitting into the conventional, traditional school setting. We have the voc-tech schools, the different career centers."

Of the seven high schools given the label, three are in Fairbanks: Ben Eielson, Lathrop and North Pole. The others were: Bethel Regional, Barrow, Dillingham and Wasilla.

Palin is not being hypocritical because of what her daughter chooses what values to live by

Teenage pregnancy is difficult enough for the very young parents involved, but is a hasty or premature marriage, in such a situation, really a solution to anything?

Marriage is never the solution.

Another thing they are going nuts over, abstinence. Last I checked, if you don't do it, you won't get pregnant 99.999999% of the time. Abstinence is apparently another cardinal sin to suggest such a thing to children.

Sheesh, last night when I was surfing the web, the leftists thought they had Palin dead to right