Is Sarah Palin's 'Rogue' Behavior Causing a Rift within the Republican Party?

[Count Iblis]

http://www.freep.com/article/20081025/NEWS15/81025038

A widening split has developed between Sarah Palin and key campaign aides for John McCain, with one McCain adviser saying the Republican vice presidential candidate is going "rogue," two reports say today.

 

[NeoDevin]

At first I read it as ``rouge'', and thought this was more about her spending on makeup.

 

[Astronuc]

She just being mavericky - perhaps outmavericking the maverick.

Or she's just being a rogue in rouge.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

You can put rouge on a ..., never mind.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

More on the story
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/27/palin.tension/index.html

The story makes me wonder how in control the "aides" are. Are these candidates merely robots? Do you say anything they actually think or write anything on their own? I'm kinda rooting for Palin here.

 

[turbo]

The McCain aides are trying very hard to control the message and get a positive news cycle or two in this last week before the election. McCain addressed the wardrobe issue last week, and wanted to let it die down, then Palin brought it up again yesterday, reminding all the women who don't have $150K to spend on clothes that Palin is indeed NOT one of them. Her presence on the ticket is McCain's biggest negative in the minds of a lot of the folks in the GOP, and though she fired up the base, she has been been the proximate cause for a number of high-profile defections.

When she goes off-script, she not only screws up the timing and presentation of the McCain campaign "message", garbled as it seems at times - she also steps out into a minefield in which her frightening ignorance of domestic and foreign affairs can be put on display in front of all the media that the campaign can muster. McCain can probably "wing it" if necessary, though his appearance on Meet the Press was very stiff and scripted. Palin cannot be allowed to "wing it" because every time she opens her mouth (apart from her scripted presentations) there is a real chance that she will say something so mind-numbingly stupid that even more GOP faithful lose confidence in the ticket.

 

[LowlyPion]

I think time is running out for Palin. The idea that she would position herself as the next great Republican hope likely will forever be fraught with memories, and the blame, McCain's unwise selection notwithstanding, for what looks increasingly like a coming electoral debacle.

The Far Right arm of the party is seemingly too extreme for a more Centrist America and any idea that they can go it alone with a candidate like Palin in subsequent cycles seems to me to be simply delusional. I think that would only serve to increase Democratic control.

 

[Astronuc]

From the CNN article cited by Greg,

Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party.

But, he [Rollins] said, "She definitely is going to be the most popular Republican in this country when this thing is over."

She is the next GWBush for the GOP.

She is the one running for VP - not McCain's aides. She needs to be able to speak her mind!

On the other hand -

"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."

McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.

But robocalls are annoying, especially negative ones, and especially for someone using a cell-phone with limited minutes. Who wants to listening to the nonsense?

 

[LowlyPion]

She is the next GWBush for the GOP.

Unfortunately with a critical difference.

Bush was born of a patrician family with national establishment connections. Palin is in a real sense a nobody that has attracted a ragtag group of fundamentalists that don't really exert that much power absent a coalition with moderate Conservatives.

Her anti-intellectualist approach, is not exactly endearing to them.

While Bush was able to get the whackos into his tent, I have serious doubts that the Bush branch of the party will be interested in being in her tent.

Oddly I heard Jeb Bush being floated as a successor figure in the party the other day and I have to think that he would have greater appeal, after some number of years than Palin will be able to develop, since he can at least think on his feet, and Palin's people can find him acceptable. On the other hand I think the reverse is not true. That's why I think this is likely to be the pinnacle of Palin's trajectory.