McCain Campaign Tensions Swirl Around Palin And Former Bush Aides

As the battle between presidential wannabes Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain heads towards its final week, one candidate remains the subject of continued media scrutiny, cryptic and at times disrespectful references by other candidates and even presumed supporters, a catalyst for a circular firing squad within one campaign, a stated partial reason for defections and, in retrospect, was a dubious choice: Republican Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin.

On this big push political weekend, Palin is the subject of a variety of new and old media stories, few of them image-enhancing. One sign of how far her national political image has fallen is how McCain’s staunchest former Democratic supporter — and reportedly one of McCain’s original choices for Veep — seemingly Sen. Joe Lieberman could not bring himself to even spin the case for Palin while talking to reporters:

Sen. Joe Lieberman on Friday g skirted a question on whether vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is ready from day one to be president, saying “thank God” she won’t have to be.

Lieberman, I-Conn., who has helped prep the Alaska governor on foreign policy issues, said his pal and GOP presidential nominee, John McCain, is in good health.

“Thank God, she’s not gonna have to be president from day one, because McCain’s going to be alive and well,” Lieberman said in a conference call with reporters.

Lieberman said he was confident that Palin, whose foreign policy background has been questioned by Democrats, could step in and handle the chief executive’s job.

“If, God forbid, an accident occurs or something of that kind, she’ll be ready,” Lieberman said. “She’s had executive experience. She’s smart and she will have had on-the-job training.”

Lieberman’s comment will rank at the top of the list for damning with faint — if existent at all — praise. He COULD have said she’s ready for Day One but won’t have to be. It’s notable that he didn’t.

Meanwhile, Ben Smith’s The Politico reports tensions between some Palin staffers and some former McCain camp Bush loyalists. Palin reportedly wants to let Sarah be Sarah — and let the handlers go hang. According to The Politico, she blames her handlers — the former Bush aides and Karl Rove proteges — for bungling the way she was rolled-out nationally and handled. The Politico piece is a virtual medley of second-guessing, blame-pointing, and responsibility-avoiding (who actually mouthed the responses that Palin gave to CBS’s Katie Couric?).

It’s clear that the lines are now being drawn — in public — for GOPers who see Palin as the star of the future if McCain loses and those who see her as a prime reason why he lost:

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.

“I think she’d like to go more rogue,” he said.

What’s most fascinating is that some of The Politico piece is sourced from a “McCain insider” who clearly blames McCain’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin’s campaign and is setting it up in advance to neutralize former Bushies pointing to Palin as a flawed and generally lousy candidate. Is the McCain insider a McCain person or a Palin person? No matter, you can see the blood spurting:

Palin’s partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin’s avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News’ Katie Couric, whose sometimes painful content the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week.

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

What do you see here? (1) A Palin faction. (2) A McCain faction. (3) A Bush faction. (4) The demonization (AGAIN) of someone so that someone else is blamed or discredited, this time within the McCain/Palin faction itself, aimed at a former Bush aide.

All of this suggests a potential GOP post-defeat bloodletting — if McCain loses and particularly if he loses in a landslide with an Obama margin that matches Ronald Reagan’s 1080 victory or LBJ’s 1964 win — that could likely fill the reservoirs of blood-banks throughout the entire world.

But if you look at the news stories involving Palin, including a new poll, it’s clear that the Alaska Governor is not proving to be a political goldmine for McCain, despite the fact that she was championed for the ticket by talk show host Rush Limbaugh and conservative bigwig William Kristol who, at first, declared her selection a political stroke of genius by McCain. A few tidbits:

* A new poll proves finds Palin’s image has been deteriorating. She has not proven to be a political goldmine for the McCain campaign in winning women’s votes — or votes beyond the GOP base for that matter:

While top-of-the-ticket rivals John McCain and Barack Obama both remain broadly popular heading into Election Day, public perceptions of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin have fallen dramatically since she emerged on the national political scene at the GOP convention.

A majority of likely voters in a new Washington Post-ABC News national poll now have unfavorable views of the Alaska governor, most still doubt her presidential qualifications and there is an even split on whether she “gets it,” a perception that had been a key component of her initial appeal.

Palin’s addition to the GOP ticket initially helped McCain narrow the gap with Obama on the question of which presidential hopeful “better understands the problems of people like you,” but at 18 percentage points, the Democrat’s margin on that question is now as big as it has been all fall. Nor has Palin attracted female voters to McCain, as his campaign had hoped.

*A report, coming on the heels that the RNC spent big bucks on Palin’s clothes, now says she spent $22,800 on makeup:

An acclaimed celebrity makeup artist for Sarah Palin collected more money from John McCain’s campaign than McCain’s foreign policy adviser.

Amy Strozzi, who also works on the reality show “So You Think You Can Dance,” was paid $22,800, according to campaign finance reports for the first two weeks in October. In contrast, McCain’s foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was paid $12,500, the report showed.

In recent days, McCain and his running mate have tried to douse a furor over how their side spent their money. The Republican National Committee came under scrutiny after the party committee reported earlier this week that it had spent about $150,000 in September on wardrobe and cosmetics after Palin joined the GOP ticket.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune and Fox News on Thursday, Palin said the clothes bought for the Republican National Convention were not worth $150,000 and said most have not left her campaign plane. She also said the family shops frugally.

*News stories continue to keep Troopergate — not a barn-burning scandal, but not something that enhances imagery — in the news. AND these stories are now using the “boilerplate” technique — recapping her problems in the polls and the mini-scandal over her clothes bill when they report on Troopergate. Here’s an example:

Sarah Palin dismissed criticism over the $150,000 (£94,000) spent on her clothes since becoming John McCain’s running-mate, amid mounting evidence that she has become a significant drag on the Republican ticket.

The Governor of Alaska spoke hours before giving a sworn deposition in the Troopergate inquiry in a hotel in St Louis, Missouri, as a second investigation opened into whether she abused her office by trying to have a state policeman fired to settle a personal score. A first report issued earlier this month concluded that she violated ethics laws in attempts to get her former brother-in-law sacked.

The revelation that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 in September on clothes, hair and make-up for Mrs Palin and her family — undermining her image as an average “Hockey Mom” — was part of a set of broader problems facing her. New polls show that she has become a bigger liability for Mr McCain, 72, than any other factor.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on Wednesday asked voters what concerns them about the Republican ticket, and Mrs Palin was the No 1 worry for them; 47 per cent had a negative impression of her, while only 38 per cent saw her in a positive light.

Her inexperience and faltering responses to foreign policy questions has also helped to erase the “Palin bounce” that boosted the ticket in the fortnight after she was chosen: 55 per cent now think that she is unqualified to be president, a troublesome number given Mr McCain’s age.

What does all this mean?

1. Palin will be a candidate in 2012 pushed by the most conservative members of the GOP, but not by traditional Goldwater-and-Reagan-descended conservatives since some of the top names associated with those two icons have broken with McCain-Palin.

2. If McCain loses, the media narrative will indeed be that she was a partial reason. If McCain loses big, she will be pointed to as a huge reason and it will likely be said that McCain’s “Hail Mary” evolved more into a to-hell-with Mary since polls show the Palin pick flopped with most supporters of Hillary Clinton, women voters in general and many independent voters. Not to mention with people who mattered such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Lieberman’s quote will be run in future stories.

3. If McCain wins, some will declare him a genius for his Palin pick but some Palin camp members and conservatives will say McCain-Palin won despite McCain and her stock will soar among conservatives.

4. If McCain loses and loses big, it’s clear that the GOP will have several factions pointing their fingers at each other (the Bushies, McCain faction, Palin faction, moderate and classic conservatives, talk radio style conservatives) and it may take the GOP an election cycle or two to find its new identity.

But, unless she makes a major gaffe, Palin is likely to be in the news for a long time to come.

SOME MORE WEBLOG OPINION:

–The Plank on The Politico story:

Ben Smith’s excellent piece contains many good nuggets, including that the Palinophiles are particularly unhappy with McCain strategist Steve Schmidt and spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, and that Palin herself has grown close to foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann.

–Josh Marshall:

A few of the early Palin profiles reported out of Alaska noted her propensity to turn on early mentors or those who gave her key legs up after those people were no longer useful.

Now the latest from The Politico …

-Unbossed:

In a presidential election, every new poll is heralded by those who paid for it no matter how far behind the curve it is. Palin’s poll numbers had crashed by late September, at the latest. But this is the first Washington Post-ABC News poll in a few weeks so the Post thinks it has a right to pretend it’s still news that the voting public has soured on the clueless Sarah Palin.

–John Cole:

Got it? The vapid moron made a total fool of herself, got completely humiliated by Katie Couric because she couldn’t answer even the most basic questions, and it is all the fault of… the person who scheduled the interview.

Well, it isn’t all Nicole Wallace’s fault. It is also partially the fault of the liberal gotcha media. And the viewers, who unfairly judged her a moron. They share some blame, too. But the one person who is most definitely not to blame, and, as you can see from this story, is really the big victim- that would be our mavericky maverick from Alaska, Sarah Palin.

Someone should ask her if maybe her disastrous performance was just God’s will.

The best thing about the upcoming circular firing squad is that once former true-believers like Nicole Wallace are screwed over royally by the wingnut fringe of the party, they will start to go all Scott McClellan. Take it from my experience- nothing hardens your resolve like being called a traitor after watching the Mayberry Machiavellis destroy your party. If you missed McClellan last night on Larry King, you really missed a treat.

–Emptywheel:

Aside from the delicious pleasure of yet another Republican firing squad story, this one is useful for its revelation that the neocons on McCain’s staff are trying to resuscitate Sarah Palin’s damaged image.

–Right Wing Nut House’s Rick Moran has a long post that must be read in full. A tiny taste 4 U:

I would add that Palin defenders have hit the nail on the head when they make the case for distortion, bias, double standards, and outright lies and rumors being printed by the MSM. The case of Palin’s belief in creationism is a perfect example. The rumor started on a site written by a Palin hater in Alaska that she believed people walked the earth with dinosaurs and that she wished to teach creationism “alongside” evolution in Alaskan schools. The rumor was printed verbatim and passed off as truth in the Los Angeles Times among other outlets.

…But this doesn’t negate certain facts. Palin is unready to hold high office and won’t be, in my opinion, for perhaps a year. The public isn’t buying the counter argument and her negatives are so high now she has become a huge drag on the campaign with two groups that McCain absolutely must win over if he is to win; white women and independents. Palin may have solidified the base but you don’t win too many elections getting 30% of the vote.

No doubt a large part of the problem has been the unfair treatment she has received in the media. But you can’t just explain away the voter’s unhappiness with Palin by ascribing all her negatives to media bias and manipulation. The American people are a little smarter than that.

Perhaps they sense something about her that Palin worshipers fail to see.

…Sarah Palin is refusing to call people who would bomb abortion clinics terrorists. Yes, she condemns their actions. But she is parsing the definition of terrorism so as not to offend that small, but vocal part of the conservative base who may not see clinic bombers as heroes, but refuse to place their actions in a a moral context that equates the tactics of the jihadis with the Eric Rudolphs of the world.

This is moral cowardice. The purpose of bombing abortion clinics (it hasn’t happened in a decade) is exactly the same as fanatics who set off car bombs in crowded markets; that is, to intimidate and to terrorize people.

This MUST-READ post (which is NOT lockstep support or lockstep opposition) needs to be read in its ENTIRETY.

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News