Source: Politico
That is, for my money, the most astonishing acknoweldgement in "The Battle for America," the new '08 campaign book by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson, out this week. Not astonishing in the sense that I'm surprised at the motivation -- just that the McCain folks admit it.
Here is how Balz/Johnson present it, with an on-record quote from McCain manager Rick Davis:
McCain's search for a running mate had started in the spring with about two dozen names. Palin was not a serious candidate. One person said she wasn't even on the initial list; others said she was -- barely. It was only later in the summer, when the campaign team became alarmed at the size of Obama's lead among women, that she was added to the list of genuine contenders. "Toward the end of the process, in July, we started taking a look at, like okay, who are we missing? Let's take a sharper look at women candidates and try that one more time," Davis said. "That's when Palin came on." Palin, he added, "stood out significantly from the rest of that list."
