Palin Versus McCain's Other VP Hopefuls
The blame game over John McCain's increasingly bleak presidential fortunes started in earnest this past week, with anonymous campaign insiders leaking sometimes withering indictments of strategy and personnel.
Emerging from the circular firing squad is a consistent theme: Sarah Palin's allies appear irritated over the handling of her candidacy while McCain insiders have come to view the Alaska Governor as remarkably self-serving. Publicly, all of this is denied. But on Saturday, sources close to the campaign put the situation in the bluntest terms yet.
"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," Politico's Ben Smith quoted a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, "I think she'd like to go more rogue."
"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," an adviser of a different mindset told CNN, "she does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else."
Certainly, one doesn't have to scratch too deep below the surface to realize that Palin's pick has created a schism within the Republican Party, one that promises to have ripple effects well beyond this election. Indeed, several short list VP members who weren't picked by McCain have recently offered subtle digs at the current vice presidential candidate.
On Friday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman became the latest to join this list when he skirted the question of Palin's readiness to take over the post of the presidency on Day One.
"Thank God, she's not gonna have to be president from day one," he told a Connecticut newspaper, "because McCain's going to be alive and well."
That most underwhelming of answers came just a day after former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge - another socially moderate conservative that McCain was forced to pass over as a VP pick - played a bit of could-have-should-have with the Republican ticket.
"I think the dynamics would be different in Pennsylvania," Ridge said when asked if he should have been chosen to run as vice president. "I think we'd be foolish not to admit it publicly."
Other once-VP hopefuls have also, occasionally, strayed from party line. Gov. Charlie Crist, of Florida didn't even try to spin the idea that Palin would be effective in luring undecided voters to the ticket.
"I think we both know the answer to that," he told CNN this past week. "But there's no question she fired up the base."
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney - who, for someone who fought McCain so bitterly in the Republican primary, has remained a devoted soldier to the cause - has also slipped up here and there. Asked if Palin were ready to be president, his endorsement was less than effusive.
"Well, that -- that's something which I -- I believe the American people will, uh, assess individually and say, uh, yeah, she's got the kind of executive experience that you'd hope to find from a person who's been a governor and a mayor," he said.
Certainly there have been other prominent Republicans who have offered harsher indictments of Palin's candidacy. As there have been conservative figures distraught with the way McCain has run his campaign. But few, like the above, are slated to be major players in the party following this election. And combined with rumors that Palin is already charting out her national, political future, it should make for an interesting battle over the future of the GOP.
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First Posted: 10-25-08 03:52 PM | Updated: 11-25-08 05:12 AM