Marc Ambinder has a short but excellent behind-the-scenes account of the Palin pick, which includes this rather remarkable rundown of things that adviser A.B. Culvahouse's vetting missed:
[A]s the Palin pick turns 72 hours old, McCain's campaign is learning as much about her from the media and from Democrats as they are from what minimal political preparation they had....
They've bragged that Palin opposed the famous "Bridge to Nowhere," only to learn that Palin supported the project and even told residents of Ketchikan that they weren't "nowhere" to her....
McCain's campaign seemed unaware that she supported a windfalls profits tax on oil companies and that she is more skeptical about human contributions to global warming than McCain is.
They did not know that she took trips as the mayor of Wasilla to beg for earmarks.
They did not know that she told a television interviewer this summer that she did not fully understand what it is that a vice president does.
Stayed tuned for more of what the McCain campaign may have missed as Democratic researchers look through her homepaper archives for the first time and talk to some of the (evidently many) Alaskan politicos who were never interviewed.
--Christopher Orr