McCain Campaign: Buyer's remorse with Palin?

[General Zod]

LOL

(CNN) -- With 10 days to go until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense they are spilling out in public, sources say.

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 if the incidents were deliberate. They cited that 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 tells CNN 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 by saying 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 press 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 unsuccessfully 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 told CNN, arguing, "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 Plain'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," Wallace wrote.

But two sources, one Palin associate and one McCain adviser, defended the decision to keep her press interaction limited after she was first picked, both saying flatly that she was not ready and missteps could have been a lot worse.

They insisted she needed time to be briefed on national and international issues and on McCain's record.

Palin spokeswoman Tracey 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 fingerpointing and scapegoating," this senior adviser told CNN.

This adviser also decried the double standard, noting that Obama's running mate, 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 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 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.

Hilarious. I wonder if this means they'll be kicking her off the ticket soon and replacing her with someone almost competent. This would almost give them an "out" with their base if they did.

[Samuel]

Nope. Than it would be flip floppong, remember?

The ironic part is I just read Hardball and the author points out that Carter had the same problem with several of his cabinet members. You'd think McCain would be aware that picking people who have an entirely differant agenda would be a problem- they tend to be loose cannons.

Just another nail in the McCain campaign

[Ender]

Bitch is sticking a shiv in between the old man's ribs to advance herself? Yeah, didn't see that one coming

I'm surprised they didn't mention the contradiction on immigration that cropped up the other day.

[Darth Wong]

What the fuck did they expect, when they acquired a free agent who has a history of unprofessional conduct and whose only real selling point in her career has been her ability to negotiate for a lot of money? If an athletic coach picked up a parasite like this, he would have been skewered (by the same redneck idiots who think Palin is fantastic).

[The Vortex Empire]

So she's backstabbing McCain to further her own ambitions? Wow, nobody could have predicted that.

Well, if this is hurting the Republican campaign, I'm not complaining.

[Mayabird]

Isn't this why they're supposed to do the vetting process before picking someone? To prevent stuff like this from happening?

[Big Orange]

Isn't this why they're supposed to do the vetting process before picking someone? To prevent stuff like this from happening?

No! That would be un-libertarian!

[Ender]

Isn't this why they're supposed to do the vetting process before picking someone? To prevent stuff like this from happening?

She was vetted. The CNP determined she had impeccable ideological credentials and that is yet to be disproven.

Oh, you meant to be qualified, not to be a zealot. Yeah, they dropped the ball on that one.

[Big Phil]

Isn't this why they're supposed to do the vetting process before picking someone? To prevent stuff like this from happening?

That is not how maverick's pick their Vice-Presidents

[That NOS Guy]

What the fuck did they expect, when they acquired a free agent who has a history of unprofessional conduct and whose only real selling point in her career has been her ability to negotiate for a lot of money? If an athletic coach picked up a parasite like this, he would have been skewered (by the same redneck idiots who think Palin is fantastic).

So Sarah Palin is T.O.? Fuck man, that actually makes a hellva lotta sense.

[RedImperator]

Hilarious. I wonder if this means they'll be kicking her off the ticket soon and replacing her with someone almost competent. This would almost give them an "out" with their base if they did.

With 10 days left? Hell will freeze over first. I don't think they could even get someone who'd be willing to risk his reputation on this train wreck of a campaign in that length of time. That's on top of the other evident reasons it would be a terrible idea.

[Darth Raptor]

Am I the only one who thinks her ambitions are totally unrealistic? I can possibly see her winning the Republican nomination in 2012 (assuming the party still exists in its present form), but the general election? Incredible.

[ArcturusMengsk]

Am I the only one who thinks her ambitions are totally unrealistic? I can possibly see her winning the Republican nomination in 2012 (assuming the party still exists in its present form), but the general election? Incredible.

I'm almost positive that she'll run for it in 2012, but the Republican 'intelligentsia' will probably throw their weight behind Romney, and the Huckster might split the redneck vote with her.

[SirNitram]

I remember seeing something, in the earliest days of Palin-reporting, about how a few reports pointed to her getting a leg up from a mentor.. And immediately giving them a thank-you knife in the back.

But what was anyone expecting? Ethically bankrupt is established by that nice report. Her cronyism, now reported widely, is not even Bush-style 'Party Loyalists'. It's 'You were good to me, specifically.'. She's a religious nut and has pretty strong ties to a Seperatist group, whose leader's death involves the phrase 'A plastic explosives deal gone bad', and which is part of the Constitution Party.

[Samuel]

Has there been any other campaign in American histroy run so badly unintentionally? What about human history? Because folks, I feel we are priveledged to see one for the record books.

[ArcturusMengsk]

Has there been any other campaign in American histroy run so badly unintentionally? What about human history? Because folks, I feel we are priveledged to see one for the record books.

Yeah: Hillary's primary campaign, which McCain is now running, given the news reported today that we'll be seeing 527 ads on Jeremiah Wright from now 'till election day.

Which is fine by me, if the Obama camp releases ads about the Alaskan Independence Party, Thomas Muthee and G. Gordon Liddy in turn.

[Glocksman]

Has there been any other campaign in American histroy run so badly unintentionally? What about human history? Because folks, I feel we are priveledged to see one for the record books.

Personally I believe that a large part of the gap between the campaigns is because Axelrod, Plouffe, and Obama are just so damned competent and planned far ahead of the immediate moves, just like a chess master would do.

In contrast, both HRC's and McCain's people ran conventional campaigns and didn't plan far ahead of the current situation.

If Obama's statement about watching how he runs his campaign will answer any questions you have about how he'll govern, the man will be the next FDR in terms of making sweeping changes but without making FDR's missteps.

[Patrick Degan]

And again, this demonstrates the big mistake the GOP made giving power to the stupid and the vicious. We are seeing the beginning of the party's own civil war.

[B5B7]

Am I the only one who thinks her ambitions are totally unrealistic? I can possibly see her winning the Republican nomination in 2012 (assuming the party still exists in its present form), but the general election? Incredible.

There is no way Palin will be their 2012 candidate. After this election she will be dropped like a hot potato and return to obscurity. The only hope Republicans have in 2012 is if they choose a totally new candidate, not recycle the current hacks.

[Stark]

What's a 'process question' and what makes them difficult for Palin to answer? I'm curious since it's a specific defence of her hideous performance when required to think for herself.

[General Zod]

What's a 'process question' and what makes them difficult for Palin to answer? I'm curious since it's a specific defence of her hideous performance when required to think for herself.

I think it's GOP terminology for "any question where a canned response won't fool the audience".

[Stark]

Oh, I thought it might be some American educational term or something.

[Flagg]

Am I the only one who thinks her ambitions are totally unrealistic? I can possibly see her winning the Republican nomination in 2012 (assuming the party still exists in its present form), but the general election? Incredible.

There is no way Palin will be their 2012 candidate. After this election she will be dropped like a hot potato and return to obscurity. The only hope Republicans have in 2012 is if they choose a totally new candidate, not recycle the current hacks.

I think she has a good chance of going to the Senate if she chose to run. Make no mistake, we will hear from Sarah Palin after 2008 even though McCain will lose. That's right, I said it. I'm calling it for Obama. If Obama is not the next president of the US I will do something so horrible and disgusting no one will ever forget it. I'll eat at Arby's.

But really, make no mistake, Sarah Palin is a political animal and will be very successful in national politics if she chooses to go that route. She's unqualified for any current national office simply because she doesn't know about anything outside of Alaska. That will change.

[Darth Wong]

What's a 'process question' and what makes them difficult for Palin to answer? I'm curious since it's a specific defence of her hideous performance when required to think for herself.

Judging by the way they use the term, I'd make an educated guess that a "process question" is their term for a question which requires actual operational knowledge of how things are done. Obviously, Sarah Palin can't answer this, because she's a useless bimbo. She prefers ideological questions which she can answer with vague statements of personal ideals and values.

[Knife]

And again, this demonstrates the big mistake the GOP made giving power to the stupid and the vicious. We are seeing the beginning of the party's own civil war.

There's been war for years now, hell the fact McCain won the nomination pretty much screams the infighting in the Repubs. A lot of rank and file are tired of the bible thumpers, match that with two 'hard' conservatives running in the primary eating each other and it's perfect for the 'maverick' to win.

As far as Palin is concerned, she's small potatoes that only look good because the thumper's didn't like McCain. She may be a political knife fighter in Alaska but that's not the same in national politics where 'down home good folk' are a dime a dozen. She is nothing but a new twist on a field littered with Romney, Huckabee, Thomson, etc...