McCain Faces Internal "Palin Insurgency"

Politico's Ben Smith reports on the internal tensions that are roiling the McCain campaign, with many Palin allies voicing their unhappiness at how the campaign has been run. According to Smith, there are now "stirrings of a Palin insurgency." Some of the highlights:

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.[...]

Anger among Republicans who see Palin as a star and as a potential future leader has boiled over because, they say, they see other senior McCain aides preparing to blame her in the event he is defeated.

"These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves," said a McCain insider, 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.
[...]

"A number of Governor Palin's staff have not had her best interests at heart and they have not had the campaign's best interests at heart," fumed the McCain insider, noting that Wallace left an executive job at CBS to join the campaign."

Read the full article.

Palin's favorability ratings have taken a hit recently, and the Washington Post reported Saturday that its latest poll shows the majority of Americans now have a negative impression of Palin.

Comments

[AspenFreePress]

Too bad Palin didn't stick to her guns against the Bush "bailout." Instead she rolled over in tandem with "the maverick," to endorse Bush's crony capitalism.
Sterling Greenwood/Aspen

[JimJones1996]

I know she loves to talk about her "gay friends" but when all is said and done, Governor Palin actually believes that if she prays hard enough for them, they will change their "sinful" behavior.

What's next? Pray the black away? Because it's one of the seven deadly skins?

For a comic take on how people like Governor Palin facilitate society's oppression of homosexuals, do a YouTube search for "MAYBE GAY RAY."

[AspenFreePress]

Remember the presidential election in Mexico? The guy who was ahead twenty points in the polls lost.
Sterling Greenwood
Aspen Free Press

[Bhimsen]

Thankfully, we don't live in Mexico.

[scottbee]

I'd guess that Palin is most upset about having to give back her perky wardrobe and losing over two months of opportunities for billing alaskans for travel expenses for sleeping in her own bed.

here's to sarah's love for her stay at home per diem

check out this short spot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUMO6zc27gg

[formerprosecutor]

Frugal ?? oh Please...I checked with three states Ethics and Accountibilty Directors and all three told me that: a.) It would violate their states rules for their Gov to charge a per diem to stay at home (and all three had experience with Govenors that did NOT live in the Captiol city; and b) Never could the entire family receive travel expenses UNLESS was avery clear cut case that the spouse or children were material and INTEGRAL to the event (such as they were a facilitator or deeplyt involved in the charity or receiving the awrd etc.; not just to "go along" as a "first family"; in fact several stated that in the past some Govenors were made to repay spouses travel.

[Interstate4Housewife]

Aaaaaaah..­..

the blame shifting begins!

[honestpolitician]

PEOPLE!!! Go out and Vote!! We need an Obama landslide as reports show that McCain is trying to rig/scam this election!! Please get your family and friends out and vote for this historical moment! You are contributing to history!

NEW POLITICAL AD ATTACKS(Video) http://politicaladattacks.blogspot.com/

[Yarrr]

I don't see how the GOP possibly thinks they can win the election when they keep falling out with each other.

[WasteNJ]

Staffers want to blame Palin for their failures and a lost election. I'm thinking that with 8 days left still, the fact that they are thinking about who to blame displays their opportunism.
It's like pushing past all the people around you on the train so you can be the first one off, when you're 20 minutes from the station.

[FedUp60]

Let's not forget how she, more than McCain, stirred up rallies that Obama was a terrorist. She can't deny it because I saw it with my own eyes. I detect she is a racist.

[Barry661]

Palin suffers from a terrible case of hubris - lots of confidence without the necessary substance to back it up. Being confident and tough are great qualities in a leader, but what good are they if your leader lacks sufficient knowledge, intelligence and sophistication? Indeed, a confident but incompetent leader is dangerous. Imagine, if Palin were ever to be elevated to POTUS, how could she possibly manage any serious national or international crisis or threat? Get "good people" around her? What if her advisers disagree with each other, then what? Palin lacks the tools to deal with such a situation, or to know when her advisers are selling her a bill of goods because they are pursuing their own agenda. Despite being from Alaska, she won't know when she's being snowed. She'll be a pawn of her advisers who we won't have any say in choosing. That's frightening.

[aaronsanders]

I hope it's because people have started to really learn about McCain and Palin.

http://www.votesmarter2008.com

[Heath05]

The GOP is imploding.
The Republican ticket is sinking in grand Titanic style.

Every man, woman, and child for his or herself!

[Bhimsen]

Palin is a village politician. Her divisive tactics only works to mobilize the narrow minded, ethnocentric, uninformed, ignorant and illiterate mass. It doesn't work that way in the US. I seriously doubt anyone like her, regardless of gender, has any future in high offices of this country. She is Republican Party’s experiment that fatally failed; that the people of this nation are not willing to give in to the neocon agenda. I hope the Republicans will truly realize that their party has failed and not blame others, for example the media.

[geedafotus]

Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet/Zogby Poll shows American voters are skeptical political motivation may be behind blogs run by mainstream news organizations

The vast majority of American voters believe media bias is alive and well – 83% of likely voters said the media is biased in one direction or another, while just 11% believe the media doesn’t take political sides, a recent IPDI/Zogby Interactive poll shows.

I bet you can't guess who they favor.

[texmike]

Even the Anchorage newspaper has endorsed Obama. I know that's more to do with their view of McCain than it is Palin, but I still found it pretty stunning.

The scariest thing about Palin is her closed-mindedness. Not only does she not know much about the world outside Alaska, there is NO sign of curiosity or interest in expanding that intellect. You get the sense that, as president, she'd invest no energy in actually learning about other countries and would instead go by typical right-wing negative stereotypes when engaging with them. She's perfectly content to live within an isolated bubble of god, guns, babies and tax breaks and believes all 'real' Americans should be as well. Damn those Barack Obama elitist types who dare look at the world outside a 2 inch by 2 inch box.

[Lui]

Let me rain on the parade for a second. If we wake up Wednesday morning to find the polls were wrong, we will have a bloodletting for the Democrats and let me start

I am mad that Obama did not counter the Ayres message with the Alaskan Independent Party--Palin actually sleeps with one of its members
Why nothing about the conflict of interest on the pipeline bidding?
Why not hit McCain on all of his flip flopping?
They are letting McCain get away with libel and doing little to stop it.
Keating is a real crisis that cost lots of people money

I have a bad last minute feeling that weeks of mudslinging is going to pay off.

[elycee]

You can't feel bad, if you do all you can.

Vote, then go to an Obama office, and help. In some battleground states, we are calling and sometimes helping voters get to the polls. Or, if you can talk 5 friends into voting.

You can travel in these days to a battleground state.

We are going to do this.
Obama/Biden 08

[timezone]

I'm with you, elycee! I have a lot of family in different states and we're getting the word out!

[timezone]

Well, Lui, Obama is so far ahead now BECAUSE rather than continually attacking his opponent, he had told people what he would actually DO as president. It's been show that voters don't really like when opponents attack each other, they would rather hear what candidates are going to do about all the crises we face, like unemployment, the economy, energy and health care. It may be pleasing to some to watch two candidates go at it like school boys slinging mud, but I just want to know what a candidate will do for me when he gets in office. Oh, and Obama HAS called McCain on his flip flopping and corrected him on his libelous attacks on many occasions.

[geedafotus]

It's not libel if it's the truth.

[JDoorjam]

The polls aren't wrong. There are simply too many of them being conducted by reputable pollsters for them all to be wrong.

Just keep doing now what you've hopefully been doing for months: talk to friends and family, contact your local campaign office and volunteer, and make sure to vote! So far, all the trends look good. Early voting is heavily lopsided toward Obama everywhere it's being measured.

[mwestorca]

Trust Obama. He has chosen the high road. And it's going to work. (I get frustrated, too, but I'm learning to believe that he really knows what he is doing.)

[AlteSoldier]

Palin does not like and does not respect McCain.

[kelvinstinks]

Palin is out for Palin, period.