Will It Be Palin vs. McCain In the Campaign’s Final Days?

photo by photobunny

It looks like there may be trouble in paradise:

Four Republicans close to Palin said she will disregard the advice of the former Bush aides who handle her.

Even as John McCain and Sarah Palin scramble to close the gap in the final days of the 2008 election, stirrings of a Palin insurgency are complicating the campaign’s already-tense internal dynamics.

Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain’s camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain’s decline.

"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.

If McCain staffers are indeed looking to blame Palin for their botched campaign, it would be extraordinarily unfair.  They got exactly what they should have expected in the Palin package — an inexperienced but authentic social conservative who delivered her lines well, and was incapable of much of anything beyond that.  There was no way she could save a campaign that was bungling along from one mistake to another long before she showed up. 

The fact that they would think she could just demonstrates that Palin ain’t the only one who’s not ready to lead. I do hope she goes "rogue" though — it would be just what they deserve.

Two words:  Clown.  Car.