Seems the Obama campaign was as suprised by the Sarah Palin VP announcement as everyone else, according to RealClearPolitics.

“Other than the announcement itself, the most interesting thing to happen yesterday was the Obama campaign’s confusion over its response to Sarah Palin. It was almost as if, having taken the bait, they suddenly realized what they had done. Almost as exciting as how Palin performs on the stump will be watching how the Obama campaign reacts. “

The first official response from the Obama camp was that “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” (read the full statement here). But as reported in Politico, Barack Obama has since toned down the rhetoric, releasing a joint statement with his VP pick, Joe Biden, with a more gracious statement which he reiterated at a campaign stop:

“I haven’t met her before. She seems like a compelling person … with a terrific personal story.

I’m sure that she will help make the case for Republicans, unfortunately the case is more of the same, and so ultimately John McCain is at the top of the ticket.”

Read the full story at Politico.