josh marshall has been writing about how the mccain campaign seems to be mostly vetting palin after her nomination was announced. but that raises the question: is that still vetting?
isn't vetting something one does before offering employment? the idea is to look into someone's background, see if there's anything unacceptable there, and if there is, to not make that person an offer and instead move on to the next potential candidate. that's what i thought vetting meant. it's something to be done before the decision is made.
you can't vet someone after you've already named them as the running mate. if post-hoc vetting turns anything up, it's too late to quietly pass them over for someone else. i realize that the mccain campaign may not have sufficiently vetting palin, the NYT suggests that palin may have been vetted for only a single day before the announcement. but the mccain campaign can't fix the problem by sending vetters to alaska now for a more thorough job. unless mccain were considering dumping palin, it's too late to vet now.
