I just saw McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds on CNN with a new line on Gov. Palin’s foreign policy experience: McCain and Palin have more combined military command experience than Obama and Biden put together.

(ed.note: We’re actually getting a flood of emails from readers noting the whole interview in which CNN’s Campbell Brown performed what amounted to a live vivisection of Bounds on live television. It was pretty rough.)

Late Update: Okay, when we went back to the tape. And the whole thing was so brutal, we decided to bring you the entire foreign policy segment of the interview. The portion noted above comes at the end. This one’s really must-see …

Earlier I noted Andrea Mitchell’s reference to reports that the McCain camp had just sent a team of GOP lawyers up to Alaska to do what I guess you’d call a post-vetting of Sarah Palin. Now George Stephanopoulos appears to have more. George says the McCainers are sending a “rapid response team of about ten operatives that includes lawyers” to do the aforementioned deeper vet. A lot of attention is being given to Gov. Palin’s daughter’s situation. The much bigger deal is the expanding trooper-gate investigation, the fact that Palin lied in her Friday speech about her purported opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere, her apparent former membership in the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, and more. Individually, you can come to your own judgment about how consequential these stories are. What they show pretty clearly now — in addition to the news that the McCain campaign is only now sending in a vetting team — is that John McCain didn’t do any serious vetting of Palin before he invited her to join his ticket and, he hopes, become Vice President of the United States.

Fundamentally, of course, this is about John McCain. And the real issue here is what this slapdash decision says about his judgment.

Just a very odd day here all the way around. Cindy McCain and Laura Bush just finished up their perfunctory appearances in front of the delegates, some of whom didn’t bother coming in for the truncated two-hour session. The hall itself was mostly empty, other than delegates and press. Traffic hasn’t been as bad as expected, and downtown St. Paul was not the mass of people anticipated. The general feeling here is like a snow day — fitting since we’re in Minnesota.

USAToday/Gallup: Obama 50%, McCain 43%.

We had heard hints of this. But just moments ago, Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC said that Republican lawyers are currently doing a vet of Sarah Palin up in Alaska. We’ll get you the video shortly. But it seems that the really deep vet of Palin started after her selection was announced.

NBC: Palin lawyers up in trooper-gate probe.

CBS: Obama 48%, McCain 40%.

(Note too though that CNN had a dead even poll out earlier today.)

It seems like reporters are zeroing in on the fact that today’s story about Gov. Palin’s daughter is a significant tell, suggesting a very rushed vetting process. McCain camp enforcer Steve Schmidt repeatedly dodged questions about whether Sen. McCain had known about the Palin’s family situation prior to inviting her to join him as his running mate.

From the Anchorage Daily News …

Reporters at the Republican national convention hammered McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt about the Palin pregnancy during a press conference. All Schmidt would say is Palin and McCain had discussed the pregnancy and considered it to be a private matter.

He wouldn’t say if they talked about it before McCain picked Palin as his vice presidential nominee.

“I answered that question nine times,” he said.