You think this is a strange political campaign cycle? Think back. Four years ago today, we published this article.
The wheels have long since fallen off the McPalin bandwagon, and the finger pointing has begun. In public. The McCain camp clearly has a case of buyer's remorse, and the Palin wing feels like they have been kept under wraps and aggressively over-managed.ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, writes about a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”
Anonymous McCain campaign leakers have now called Governor Palin a “diva," and even “a whack job.”
George Stephanpolous also wrote: "The Alaska governor herself has been pushing out on her own against McCain's handlers. In recent days she has been speaking her own mind about what she thought of McCain's strategy in Michigan, and what she thought of his decision not to go after Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "
From Atlantic Magazine: "There's a faction within the McCain campaign has begun to whisper about Gov. Sarah Palin to reporters. The faction includes staff members and advisers who consult with staff members. It does not seem to include any members of the senior staff, although the definition of the senior staff here is a bit elastic. This faction has come to believe that Palin, perhaps unwittingly, subconsciously or otherwise, has begun to play Sen. McCain off of the base, consistently and deliberately departed from the campaign's message of the day in ways that damage McCain."Politico.com reports: "'She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,' said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to 'go rogue' in some of her public pronouncements and decisions. 'I think she'd like to go more rogue,' he said … 'These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves,' a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week."
The New York Post said: "Things have gotten so tense between Palin and her traveling staff, an insider said, that she's overruling their advice — which was evident last week when she ignored GOP aides piling into waiting cars at a Colorado event and strolled over to the press corps for an impromptu talk."
From the Cable News Network web site: "'She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,' said [a] McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."
UPI reported yesterday that "At a Tampa rally yesterday, Palin blasted the RNC for buying her a $150,000 wardrobe, calling it "ridiculous." Unsurprisingly, these were not the remarks that were sent to her in the morning by the McCain campaign.
New York magazine's Daily Intel column online reported that "The idea of Palin as running mate was sprung on McCain at the very last minute by his two strong-willed advisers, Fred Davis and Steve Schmidt. This weekend's New York Times Magazine story reveals just how short a time period it was between when Davis and Schmidt unilaterally presented their case and when the announcement was made by McCain (five days). According to the story, McCain made up his own mind, but in retrospect he may regret the timing and spin."
Whew!
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