a faction within the McCain campaign...has come to believe that [Sarah] Palin, perhaps unwittingly, subconsciously or otherwise, has begun to play Sen. McCain off of the base, consistently and deliberately departing from the campaign's message of the day in ways that damage McCain.

Ambinder cited "palling around with terrorists" as one example of a line that the faction believes "escaped HQ's vetting" (Ambinder's words).

On Friday...