McCain’s Mrs. Right

The investigation is scheduled to release its findings on Oct. 31—the Friday before the Tuesday presidential election. But Palin brushes off the seriousness of the investigation. "She conceded that she had an aide who went off the reservation and made a phone call that was inappropriate," said the governor's spokesman, Bill McAllister, at a press conference last Friday. But, he went on, "she is saying she never intended or thought she placed any pressure on Walt Monegan." Palin's approval ratings among Alaskans, once as high as 90 percent, have dropped to a still robust 76 percent in a recent poll.

The McCain campaign did not appear too concerned that the investigation would turn into a nasty October surprise. Asked about Palin's troubles back home, a senior McCain adviser, who declined to be named discussing private strategy, said the campaign had looked very closely at the allegations involving Palin's ex-brother-in-law and was "comfortable" that there are no shoes to drop that could complicate the campaign. The adviser declined to say if McCain had asked Palin about it directly.

Palin was a dark horse in the veepstakes, and made a late run. One of McCain's closest advisers, Sen. Lindsay Graham, had been partial to Sen. Joe Lieberman, McCain's close friend and fellow maverick in the Senate. But as a nominal Democrat who is also pro-choice, Lieberman was too unpopular with the GOP's powerful right flank. McCain had scorned Mitt Romney as a possible running mate, regarding him as too slick and opportunistic. But McCain does not like to be seen as a grudge-bearer, and he understood the former businessman Romney could bolster his own somewhat weak economic bona fides. In the end, says a McCain adviser who did not want to be quoted discussing the selection process, McCain and his aides feared that all those videos of McCain and Romney sniping at each other in the debates would be endlessly replayed by the Democrats. Still touchy about his failure to recollect how many houses he and his wife owned, McCain knew that Romney owned at least four.

McCain barely knew Palin. He had briefly met her last winter, when he spoke before the National Governors' Association conference in Washington. But he liked what he learned about her from others, especially her willingness to take on her own party, as McCain himself often does. He liked her when they spoke by phone on the night of Sunday, Aug. 24, and by Wednesday night she was secretly winging down to Arizona. The face-to-face with McCain and his wife, Cindy, on Thursday went well; McCain made the offer.

Then it came time to fake out the press and build suspense—to take the cameras away from Barack Obama almost as soon as he finished his speech Thursday night. While cable TV played a breathless guessing game, Palin was sneaked into Middletown, Ohio, where she spent the night in an $89 room in the Manchester Inn. "Very unposh," says Nicolle Wallace, a McCain communications adviser who flew in secretly to meet the nominee. The Palin clan arrived from Alaska on a private jet, along with several McCain staffers, and checked in under the name the "Uptons." "A family reunion," an advance staffer explained to the hotel clerk.

The choice of Palin was a shocker to some conservative pundits, like Charles Krauthammer, who had hoped that McCain would play it safe and choose an unremarkable but solid running mate like Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. The choice of Palin is historic, but it undercuts McCain's attack on Obama as a greenhorn lacking in experience, especially abroad. Palin is going to have to essentially take a crash course in foreign affairs before the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate against Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Her best hope may be that Biden says something condescending or goofy—actually, a possibility, given his past history. (At one Washington think tank, staffers were joking that Palin's best strategy in the debate would be to cede all her time to Biden.)

Still, McCain allies were spinning as madly and creatively as they could. "If she can stand up to Ted Stevens, she can stand up to the Russians," says Graham. "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. What the hell has Biden commanded?" The Obama campaign came out sneering: "Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," said spokesman Bill Burton. But later, Obama told reporters, "She seems like a compelling person, with a terrific personal story." He seemed to dismiss his own spokesman's "hair trigger" comments. Obama may have just been playing the good cop. Or maybe he was just telling the truth.

With Holly Bailey, Michael Isikoff, Tony Hopfinger and Suzanne Smalley

© 2008