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Re: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) -- With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Saturday.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Saturday.
Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue."
A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.
McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.
A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this 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."
A Palin associate defended her, saying that she is "not good at process questions" and that her comments on Michigan and the robocalls were answers to process questions.
But this Palin source acknowledged that Palin is trying to take more control of her message, pointing to last week's impromptu news conference on a Colorado tarmac.
Tracey Schmitt, Palin's press secretary, was urgently called over after Palin wandered over to the press and started talking. Schmitt tried several times to end the unscheduled session.
"We acknowledge that perhaps she should have been out there doing more," a different Palin adviser recently said, arguing that "it's not fair to judge her off one or two sound bites" from the network interviews.
The Politico reported Saturday on Palin's frustration, specifically with McCain advisers Nicolle Wallace and Steve Schmidt. They helped decide to limit Palin's initial press contact to high-profile interviews with Charlie Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, which all McCain sources admit were highly damaging.
In response, Wallace e-mailed CNN the same quote she gave the Politico: "If people want to throw me under the bus, my personal belief is that the most honorable thing to do is to lie there."
But two sources, one Palin associate and one McCain adviser, defended the decision to keep her press interaction limited after she was picked, both saying flatly that she was not ready and that the missteps could have been a lot worse.
They insisted that she needed time to be briefed on national and international issues and on McCain's record.
"Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic," said another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin after she was picked. The source said it was probably the "hardest" to get her "up to speed than any candidate in history."
Schmitt came to the back of the plane Saturday to deliver a statement to traveling reporters: "Unnamed sources with their own agenda will say what they want, but from Gov. Palin down, we have one agenda, and that's to win on Election Day."
Yet another senior McCain adviser lamented the public recriminations.
"This is what happens with a campaign that's behind; it brings out the worst in people, finger-pointing and scapegoating," this senior adviser said.
This adviser also decried the double standard, noting that Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, has gone off the reservation as well, most recently by telling donors at a fundraiser that America's enemies will try to "test" Obama.
Tensions like those within the McCain-Palin campaign are not unusual; vice presidential candidates also have a history of butting heads with the top of the ticket.
John Edwards and his inner circle repeatedly questioned Sen. John Kerry's strategy in 2004, and Kerry loyalists repeatedly aired in public their view that Edwards would not play the traditional attack dog role with relish because he wanted to protect his future political interests.
Even in a winning campaign like Bill Clinton's, some of Al Gore's aides in 1992 and again in 1996 questioned how Gore was being scheduled for campaign events.
Jack Kemp's aides distrusted the Bob Dole camp and vice versa, and Dan Quayle loyalists had a list of gripes remarkably similar to those now being aired by Gov. Palin's aides.
With the presidential race in its final days and polls suggesting that McCain's chances of pulling out a win are growing slim, Palin may be looking after her own future.
"She's no longer playing for 2008; she's playing 2012," Democratic pollster Peter Hart said. "And the difficulty is, when she went on 'Saturday Night Live,' she became a reinforcement of her caricature. She never allowed herself to be vetted, and at the end of the day, voters turned against her both in terms of qualifications and personally."
Re: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
Interesting. So in other words, she knows they lost and is basically throwing them under the bus so she can run in 2012. If so, why didn't she just decline the VP offer, take a crash course on everything during the next four years, and then make her mark?
Re: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
I read this article, yesterday I believe, and came to the same conclusion.
I'm guessing she took the VP role, because 'beggers can't be choosers' so to speak, and she had a shot and took it (same with Biden).
She knows it over. She's known it's over. She knows she was mishandled, and has been from day one.
I however DO NOT think they'll throw her under the bus. The RNC most likely will see her viability, and will make the McCain camp play her up, even if they lose, for the "betterment" of the Republican party.
Problem with THAT is, the Republican party will get NOWHERE with Sarah Palin, and no one can tell them that. The days of the Reagan-Republican, conservativism first, religious right, bible thumper, family-first party are done. DONE.
If the Republican party wants a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected in 2012, they better hope and pray Obama screws up majorly, or more likely, they'll be faced with having to totally re-invent their party for 2012 in order to beat Obama in re-election.
Trust me, as much as I like Obama, I know this much. With the economy in the shape it's in, whether you like it or not, Obama, who has a history of being very left, with a majority Democrat house, ran by the most liberal of all liberals Nancy Pelosi... this country will see MAJOR changes in the next four years. A change that may kill conservatives all together. It's gonna get more liberal all around, right down to the casual voter.
The Republicans are going to have to clean house, or they are going to sink their chances of ever getting another president elected. They are going to have to start first by getting those fucking cross-holders out of their party. What might benefit the Democratic party, is if Obama holds true to his threats against Pakistan & Iran, it might finally purge the anti-war hippies out of the Democratic party, which have choked them for years. And if THAT happens, there will be no stopping them.
In other words, my message to the RNC.... "if you want to keep running with the pack, you better change, or you're gonna get left on the porch. Whether the new changes are right or wrong."
Re: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
Interesting. So in other words, she knows they lost and is basically throwing them under the bus so she can run in 2012. If so, why didn't she just decline the VP offer, take a crash course on everything during the next four years, and then make her mark?
I don't think anyone ever accused Palin of being overly smart.
Re: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
Oh okay. Well I was just curious. I mean NOBODY is talking about McCain. I don't even see his face out there.
Guess that's his fault. Never thought i'd see someone butcher a campaign alive worse than Al Gore.... John you're now the victor.
Re: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
The polls are closing. I've been watching them every day. Maybe that's just undecided voters going with McCain, and not really momentum on his part. In either case, the leads are shrinking nationally. McCain's problem is in Colorado, Ohio and Florida. If he doesn't close the gap in one of those states, he cannot win.
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
The polls are closing. I've been watching them every day. Maybe that's just undecided voters going with McCain, and not really momentum on his part. In either case, the leads are shrinking nationally. McCain's problem is in Colorado, Ohio and Florida. If he doesn't close the gap in one of those states, he cannot win.
The polls over the weekend always seem to favor McCain, possibly because older voters are actually at home while younger voters go and do things during the weekend instead of sitting by their land line and talking to pollsters. My guess is the polls will widen later this week once again for Obama. If they keep getting closer, then I'd say McCain has pretty good momentum going.
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