Palin’s off-script comments irk McCain aides
Story Highlights
- Gov. Sarah Palin made unscripted remarks about wardrobe controversy Sunday
- Palin aide says governor felt like she had to say something to defend herself
- McCain adviser: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone”
Some aides to Sen. John McCain say they weren’t happy that running mate Sarah Palin went off script Sunday and turned attention back to the controversy over her wardrobe.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin deviated from her prepared remarks to talk about her wardrobe controversy Sunday.
The Alaska governor on Sunday brought up the recent reports regarding the Republican National Committee’s $150,000 spending spree on clothing and accessories for the Palin family.
Palin denounced talks of her wardrobe as “ridiculous” and declared emphatically: “Those clothes, they are not my property.”
“Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I’m not taking them with me,” she said at a rally in Tampa, Florida.
A senior McCain adviser told CNN that those comments “were not the remarks we sent to her plane.” Palin did not discuss the wardrobe story at her rally in Kissimmee, Florida, later in the day.
A Palin aide, however, told CNN that the governor clearly felt like she had to say something to defend herself, because “that’s really not who she is.”
Over the weekend, sources told CNN that long-brewing tensions between Palin and key aides to McCain were on the rise.
Several McCain advisers suggested that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.”
A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.
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.
A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” this McCain adviser said. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.
“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.” 
Watch more on the ‘diva’ criticism »
A Palin associate defended her, saying that she is “not good at process questions” and that her comments on Michigan and the robocalls were answers to process questions.
But this Palin source acknowledged that Palin is trying to take more control of her message, pointing to an impromptu news conference on a Colorado tarmac last week.
CNN contributor and Republican strategist Ed Rollins said Palin was “mishandled” during the earlier part of the campaign, and as a result, “she’s become a target of a lot of ridicule.”
But, he said, “She definitely is going to be the most popular Republican in this country when this thing is over.”
The Politico reported Saturday on Palin’s frustration, specifically with McCain advisers Nicolle Wallace and Steve Schmidt. They helped decide to limit Palin’s initial media contact to high-profile interviews with Charlie Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, which all McCain sources admit were highly damaging.
In response, Wallace e-mailed CNN the same quote she gave the Politico: “If people want to throw me under the bus, my personal belief is that the most honorable thing to do is to lie there.”
But two sources, one Palin associate and one McCain adviser, defended the decision to keep her media interaction limited after she was picked, both saying flatly that she was not ready and that the missteps could have been a lot worse.
They insisted that she needed time to be briefed on national and international issues and on McCain’s record.
“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.”
Yet another senior McCain adviser lamented the public recriminations.
“This is what happens with a campaign that’s behind; it brings out the worst in people, finger-pointing and scapegoating,” this senior adviser said.
This adviser also decried the double standard, noting that Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, has gone off the reservation as well, most recently by telling donors at a fundraiser that America’s enemies will try to “test” Obama.
Tensions like those within the McCain-Palin campaign are not unusual; vice presidential candidates also have a history of butting heads with the top of the ticket.
John Edwards and his inner circle repeatedly questioned Sen. John Kerry’s strategy in 2004, and Kerry loyalists repeatedly aired in public their view that Edwards would not play the traditional attack dog role with relish because he wanted to protect his future political interests.
Even in a winning campaign like Bill Clinton’s, some of Al Gore’s aides in 1992 and again in 1996 questioned how Gore was being scheduled for campaign events.
Jack Kemp’s aides distrusted the Bob Dole camp and vice versa, and Dan Quayle loyalists had a list of gripes remarkably similar to those now being aired by Palin aides.
Delivering what his campaign billed as his “closing argument,” Obama told a crowd in Canton, Ohio, that “there’s so much at stake” in the week ahead. “We cannot let up for one day, one minute, or one second in this last week. Not now,” he said. The Democratic candidate, who has a sizeable lead in national polls, warned against acting like the election is already over. “Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have a lot of work to do. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does depend on it this week,” he said. Obama told voters it was up to them to “give this country the change we need,” as he tried to make the case that Sen. John McCain is too similar to President Bush to bring about that change. “Sen. McCain says that we can’t spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, but you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is to embrace the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years,” Obama said. Video Watch more on Obama’s final push » McCain on Monday sought to assure voters that his administration would be far different from the Bush administration. “This is the fundamental difference between Sen. Obama and me — the fundamental difference. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is that he thinks taxes have been too low, and I think that spending has been too high,” McCain said following a meeting with economic and business leaders in Cleveland, Ohio. What would you ask Sen. Obama? Don’t Miss * GOP fights to keep Dems from complete control of Senate * Obama pushes McCain-Bush connection * Time: McCain still holds out hope McCain said his economic goals are clear: to protect savings accounts and get the stock market rising, to keep people in their homes and to create millions of jobs through tax cuts. Video Watch McCain talk about his economic plan » In response, the Obama campaign said McCain “continued to parrot the same failed policies that give billions to billionaires and big corporations while providing no relief at all to more than 100 million middle-class Americans.” As national polls show Obama with a sizeable lead, McCain and Republicans have shifted their argument, warning voters of what they see as the dangers of a government controlled by Democrats. Democrats in the Senate are hoping to win 60 seats — enough to secure a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. “The answer to a slowing economy isn’t higher taxes, but that is exactly what is going to happen when the Democrats have total control of Washington,” McCain said Sunday in Zanesville, Ohio. “We can’t let that happen. Can you imagine Obama, [Harry] Reid, [Nancy] Pelosi? My friends — tax and spend, tax and spend.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee released an ad in North Carolina, where incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole is in a tight race with challenger Kay Hagan. The ad warns voters against Democrats controlling the White House and Congress, and it flatly states that if Hagan wins, the party will “get a blank check.” With just eight days left for each side to make its case, Obama and McCain are both focusing on battleground Ohio, where 20 electoral votes are at stake. Following his economic meeting, McCain headed to Dayton for a rally. Obama and McCain both plan to campaign in Pennsylvania following their Ohio events. Obama leads McCain by 4 points in Ohio, 50 percent to 46 percent, according to CNN’s average of polls there. The Democrat also has the lead in Pennsylvania, up 51-41 percent, according to CNN’s poll of the polls there. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell recently sent two separate memos to the Obama campaign requesting that the Democratic candidate — as well as Hillary and Bill Clinton — return to his state. Obama’s last visit to the state was on October 11. Rendell said the McCain campaign was clearly making a push to win Pennsylvania, given the recent visits by the Arizona senator, his wife and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. According to Rendell, there is also worry among Democrats that the McCain campaign has successfully raised the enthusiasm level among Republicans in the state. Palin has a series of rallies scheduled Monday in Virginia, where Republicans now find themselves playing defense. CNN’s poll of polls in Virginia shows Obama leading McCain, 50-45 percent. The state hasn’t voted for a Democratic president in more than four decades. Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has rallies planned in North Carolina and Florida, two states that President Bush won in the past two presidential elections. Obama leads by 2 points in Florida, 48-46 percent, according to the most recent average of polls there. advertisement In North Carolina, a recent CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. poll indicated Obama had a 4-point lead over McCain, 51 percent to 47 percent
