This weekend has featured some stories similar to this, portraying a rift in the McCain campaign between McCain, Palin, and campaign advisers.
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.
Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.”
I’m reluctant to read too much into these anonymously-sourced stories because there’s no way to verify how accurate these characterizations are. Like other observers, however, I did note subtle signs of tension between McCain and Palin during their interview with Brian Williams last week.
At any rate, in the long run this may be the more interesting dynamic to the story:
“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.”
Next leader of the party? If McCain loses next week, could Palin make a run for the nomination in 2012?
She has gotten plenty of positive support from the GOP base and the rightist media to fan such ambitions. (Whether or not that media support will be there next time around, in the face of Republican competition, is another matter). I encourage her to go for it. I think she would be easier for the Democratic nominee to defeat than other potential candidates would be. One reason:
“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.”
Obviously she will be better prepared to run in 2012 with four years of preparation. But I sense in her a lack of intellectual curiosity (apparent in our current president) that may not be easily masked under the rigor of a year-long campaign.