Thanks for submitting this Denise. It's interesting and damning, if true, that McCain wasn't truthful about an FBI vetting. Also that, as Denise indicated, he didn't get to pick his choice of running mate who would have been Lieberman or Ridge, both supposedly disqualified as being pro-choice. The Times story gives the appearance of fairness, but raises some questions in my mind, as there are so many anonymous sources, other than the Alaskans, who are willing to go on record. And what the Times doesn't tell you or credit is that in "Choice stuns state politicians," http://www.adn.com/politics/story/510249.html Anchorage Daily News reporters Sean Cockerham and Wesley Loy published interviews with many of the same folks on August 29 and that, although fellow Republicans, three quoted by th eNYT, are her political adversaries. From that story, === "Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news. '"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?' said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. 'Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?' "Green, who has feuded with Palin repeatedly over the past two years, brought up the big oil tax increase Palin pushed through last year. She also pointed to the award of a $500 million state subsidy to a Canadian firm to pursue a natural gas pipeline that is far from guaranteed." === And "Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican political leader who has clashed with Palin in the past, was shocked when she heard the news Friday morning with her husband, Walt. "'I said to Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out,' Phillips said. "Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate. "'We're not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something.'" === And while the local piece could not get an interview with him, it noted that another NYT interviewee Ruedrich, that Palin;s complaints againt him "before she became governor led to the state fining him on ethics charges." === BTW, The reporter wrote another piece August 30, co-authored by Michael Cooper, on why Lieberman was deleted from the veep list. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/politics/31reconstruct.html