Palin pick was a match made in February

ST. PAUL - Their first meeting was last February at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington. Sarah Palin was one of several governors who met privately with Sen. John McCain, by then well on his way to capturing the Republican presidential nomination, and her directness and knowledge were impressive.

Later that day, at a largely social gathering organized by his campaign, McCain spent another 15 minutes in private conversation with the first-term Alaska governor.

"I remember him talking about her when he came back," a McCain adviser said. "He said she was an impressive woman. He liked her."

But few people outside McCain's inner circle were privy to just how much of an impression Palin had made that day.

In the months of speculation over who McCain would pick as his vice presidential running rate, Palin's name occasionally surfaced but rarely as a serious choice. But by the time she arrived in Arizona last Wednesday to meet first with two top McCain advisers and then the next day with the candidate and his wife, Cindy, the job was hers to lose.

"He was down to the point that if the meeting had gone well, and it was expected to go well, there was going to be an offer," said a senior adviser privy to the decision-making. "I don't think he would have invited her if it weren't his intention to offer her the job."

Far from being a last-minute tactical move or a second choice when better known alternatives were eliminated, Palin was very much in McCain's thinking from the beginning of the selection process, according to McCain's advisers. The 44-year-old governor made every cut as the first list of candidates assembled last spring was slowly winnowed. The more McCain learned about her, the more attracted he was to her as someone who shared his maverick, anti-establishment instincts.

"He looked at her like a kindred spirit," said one close adviser, who declined to be identified in order to speak more freely. "Someone who wasn't afraid to take tough positions."

Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager and the person at the point of the vice presidential process, said there was no abrupt change in the final hours. Nor, he said, was Palin selected without having gone through the full vetting process that was done for other finalists.

In-depth vetting

That process included reviews of financial and other personal data, an FBI background check and considerable discussion among the handful of McCain advisers involved in the deliberations.

Six people were involved in the secretive deliberations that led to Palin's selection: McCain; his wife, Cindy; campaign manager Davis; longtime confidant Mark Salter; senior adviser Steve Schmidt; and key strategist Charlie Black. In addition, Washington attorney A.B. Culvahouse oversaw the vetting.

It began last spring with a list of about three dozen possible choices. One aide described the process as one in which the inner circle would meet regularly with McCain to review and discuss the choices.

"He and several of us had multiple meetings," one adviser said. "Discussions, strengths and weaknesses of all the candidates. He asked a lot of questions and listened -- didn't tip his hand to too many of us. He was very insistent that this process often wounds people, and we were to stay very quiet."

"We obviously were looking at a lot of different options," one adviser said. "We looked at base options, women, pro-choice, pro-life, people outside the party. It was a very broad and deep search. Most of the people we checked out never made it into the public domain, and some speculated on were very, very competitive for the job."

But this adviser added that because the process was so leak-free, the public knew little of the actual deliberations, and the campaign did not try to knock down incorrect speculation.

"It's a little naive on the part of the media to assume because they weren't reporting this (Palin's consideration) for the last few months, there's something up on this. ... We didn't spend any time saying yes or no to any of the speculation -- just because everyone thought it was going to be Mitt Romney for a month, and then it was going to be Joe Lieberman for a month."

Some even less well known

Aides said there were candidates even less known than Palin under consideration at points in the process. And, they argued, Palin is more experienced and capable than critics of the choice know. "She's got an ability that far exceeds her tenure in office."

The McCain camp had reviewed everything they could find on Palin, including videotapes of her public speeches and interviews. "She makes a great speech," one adviser observed.

Last Sunday night, McCain talked to Palin by phone from Arizona, in what aides called a somewhat lengthy call, which prompted him to ask her to come to Arizona later in the week.

She flew into Flagstaff on Wednesday and that night conferred with Schmidt and Salter. On Thursday morning about 7 a.m., she, Salter, Schmidt and a Palin aide climbed into an SUV with tinted windows to begin the 45-minute drive to McCain's retreat in Sedona.

There McCain greeted her, offered her a cup of coffee, and the two of them walked off to a bend in the creek on the property where chairs and a bench rest. The spot is one of McCain's favorites, with a hawk's nest above. McCain and Palin talked alone and then were joined by Cindy McCain.

Aides said Cindy McCain played a key role throughout the process of picking a vice president.

McCain finished up after about an hour. Palin and her aide went to the deck of McCain's cabin. The candidate and his wife went for a walk along the creek. When they returned, McCain held one last session with aides Schmidt and Salter. Then he went over to the deck to offer Palin the job.

The deal was sealed "with a handshake, a pat on the back," one adviser said.