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.

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.

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 …

I was skimming through the reader comments on Greg Sargent’s featured post. And this commenter makes a really good point: how many elected Republicans have you seen on TV as surrogates for Gov. Palin? Sticking up for her, defending her? Anything?

I’m told Lindsay Graham was on one show. And I know that Kay Bailey Hutchison was on one of the networks the day she was selected. But I think she said she really didn’t know much about her.

This isn’t just a rhetorical question. There’s a lot of tv I don’t get to watch. But I don’t have a sense I’ve heard much from elected officeholders. Not really much of anything. And it’s pretty striking once it’s pointed out.

Who’ve you seen?

We’ve already had a number of threshold moments in John McCain’s on-going descent into ignominy. But surely this has to be another. John McCain just hired Tucker Eskew, the guy in charge of sliming him back in South Carolina in 2000. Apparently, he’ll be in charge of prepping Sarah Palin for her role as McCain’s running mate — which, when you think about it, may be McCain’s ultimate payback.

As Eric Kleefeld just quipped, what is he gonna do? Accuse Barack Obama of fathering two black children?

TPM Reader ES …

Someone ought to look into McCain’s actions of late — going all in on un-vetted Sarah Palin; betting on the impact of Gustav; even staking a claim on Iraq the way he did.. And I’m sure there are more. Betting on a position to take AGAINST Bush. Then FOR Bush. They seem suspiciously like the actions of a compulsive gambler. It’s a way of thinking. Go all in and then hope to draw an inside straight. My guess is someone smarter than me could put together and entire profile. But he acts like an addict – and he keeps doing it again and again and again.

I’m not 100% on board with this readers list. But his overall point is right on the mark. My list wold be Georgia, Palin and Gustav. Politically at least, McCain’s Georgia high-wire act clearly worked for him, the substantive irresponsibility notwithstanding. Palin is turning into the white water rapids of presidential picks. And the decision to all but cancel and then try what I imagine will be a cold start on Tuesday … well, I don’t discount the huge challenge Gustav’s extremely untimely arrival created for McCain and the GOP. And it did seem like there was a chance that if Gustav had been an epically catastrophic event and he gave his acceptance speech while simultaneously helping to shore up a levee or rescue cats from roofs in flooded neighborhoods, it could even have turned into a political coup.

But in each of these cases you do have a pattern of high stakes gambles, with limited information available to make a reasoned decision and a pattern developing of an erratic style of leadership lurching from one crisis to the next. I’m sure a lot of Republicans can see that too.

In one of the stories yesterday about Palin’s hiring of a lawyer — which we now find out she’s having the state of Alaska pay for — I noted that her new counsel, Thomas Van Flein, asked the lead investigator in the case to turn over all witness statements and documents produced so far in the probe. That struck me not as a good-faith request but rather an effort to get into a fight over process and thus gum up the investigation until after the election.

And sure enough, today’s Anchorage Daily News provides plenty of evidence that that is what’s happening in spades. Though to this point Palin has said she would cooperate fully with the investigation, Van Flein is now challenging the standing of the entire inquiry. He claims that any investigation should be handled not by the legislature but by the state Personnel Board which, conveniently, is made up of the governor’s appointees.

Van Flein is also charging that the state senator charged with overseeing the investigation is on a partisan witch-hunt. “Our concern is that Hollis French turns into Ken Starr and uses public money to pursue a political vendetta rather than truly pursue an honest inquiry into an alleged ethics issue,” Van Flein told the ADN. To which French rather persuasively responded that the charge of partisanship rang at least a little hollow since the investigation was instigated and authorized by a committee dominated by Republicans (though it’s only fair to note that Palin is not beloved by all Republicans in the state).

And finally that deposition that the investigator is trying to arrange with Gov. Palin? Seems she may be too busy running for vice president to make time for that. From the ADN …

Branchflower [the lead investigator] hasn’t been able to set up an interview with Palin. French said the state will fly Branchflower to wherever Palin is on the campaign trail if needed.

“Clearly the governor’s new political role will make it more challenging for her to make time for this investigation,” French wrote. But Palin needs to be interviewed sometime in September, he said.

Van Flein said the investigation is “bad timing” in the middle of a presidential campaign. He said he couldn’t guarantee her availability this month.

If witnesses aren’t available, French wrote, he’ll ask the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, to issue subpoenas.

Buckle up.

As some of you know I keep an eye on the political futures markets at Intrade.com. And I’ve been wondering whether they’d open a contract on whether Sarah Palin would make it to November, let alone the White House. And sure enough, here it is. Still a long shot at 15% odds of it happening. But up 12 points so far today.

For what it’s worth, even though I hinted that I thought we might be going there over the weekend, we should not underestimate the massive forces standing in the way of canning Palin.

The consequences of what I think everyone can now see was a bad decision are huge. The consequences of admitting it was a mistake are something like catastrophic. Much of the remainder of the campaign, I think, would devolve into a picking over of just what McCain was thinking. So while McCain’s strategy is based on running on his purportedly superior judgment, much of the campaign coverage would focus on his demonstrably bad judgment.

Also, a very big deal, though not quite as big, would be the effect on conservative evangelicals. Putting Palin on the ticket seems to have finally brought many of them squarely into the McCain camp. Tossing her overboard could be lethal with this critical Republican constituency.

They’re in a tight spot.

Late Update: 8:54 AM … Now it’s at 18.