From Staff and Wire reports
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Sarah Palin’s path to the Republican ticket started with her name on a list — and a team of about 25 people poring through public records searching for trouble spots without her knowledge. Then came the 70-question survey and a nearly three-hour interview.
The review officially ended Thursday, when John McCain asked the Alaska governor to be his running mate.
In the days since, Republicans and Democrats have privately questioned whether the Arizona senator chose the first-term governor without fully looking into her background. McCain’s campaign has vehemently defended the review.
Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., the lawyer who conducted the review, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Palin underwent a “full and complete” examination before McCain chose her. The AP asked whether everything that came up as a possible red flag during the review already has been made public, and Culvahouse said: “I think so. Yeah, I think so. Correct.”
Stoking the notion of a rushed examination, a campaign-issued timeline indicated that McCain initially met Palin in February, then held one phone conversation with her last week before inviting her to Arizona, where he met with her a second time and offered her the job.
The campaign’s disclosure Monday that Palin’s unmarried 17-year-old daughter was pregnant, and reports that Palin’s husband, Todd, had been arrested in 1986, when he was 22, for driving under the influence of alcohol, have raised further questions.
Culvahouse said Palin’s review, like others, began with a team of two dozen people culling information from public sources. The team reviewed speeches, financial records, tax information, litigation, investigations, ethical charges, marriages and divorces for a number of potential running mates.
Some OSU students don’t find Palin’s past as a problem.
“I like Palin a lot, and I think McCain made a good choice,” said Jordan Beard, an agriculture business sophomore. “She’s conservative, and I really like that about her. I don’t care about her daughter being pregnant or any other personal stuff because it’s none of my business and to be honest it doesn’t affect her performance as a future vice president.”
Layne Smith, a finance and accounting senior, agreed that personal life shouldn’t affect Palin’s nomination.
“I don’t think her personal life should be involved in her politics,” Smith said. “Family, especially, should be left out of the media. I think it’s unfair to drag Mrs. Palin’s 17-year-old daughter into the national spotlight because everyone makes mistakes. Topics should be reserved to political policy and other relevant issues.”
Student Hanna McCafferty said she is more interested in Palin’s political qualifications rather than her personal life.
“I wasn’t so concerned about her daughter being pregnant as I was about other issues and why McCain chose her as VP,” said McCafferty, a pre-nursing sophomore.
“I don’t like that McCain isn’t as environmentally friendly as Obama. I think he chose her to improve relations with Alaska to maybe get oil from over there. And I think he chose a woman because he wants to get the Hillary {Clinton} votes.”
Eric Marshall, a finance junior, said the media are worrying too much about her personal life.
“I think people are making too big of a deal about it,” Marshall said. “I think it was a very bold choice on McCain’s part to choose a female VP. I think a teen pregnancy would be extremely difficult on any mother so it could affect her and her performance as a political leader, but I think she’ll do her best job to show it wont have an effect.”
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