In the closing days of the 2008 Presidential campaign, with everything on the line for the two candidates, the long knives are coming out. Not to bloody the two candidates heading their respective tickets, Senators McCain and Obama, but to recriminate over the behavior of the Republican nominee for vice president, Governor Palin. Beloved by hockey moms, families of children with disabilities, and members of evangelical churches, Palin was campaigning solo through the battleground states and distancing herself from the McCain team that had dressed her in costly togs to rebrand her from a Walmart mom to a Designer Barbie.

As the campaign dwindled down to the last few days, bitter infighting broke out between McCain “handlers” and Palin staff over management of Palin’s role in the campaign, according to numerous media reports (CNN, AP, Politico, and others). Team Palin said they were frustrated by the marching orders given to their candidate, blaming the McCain honchos for a series of embarrassing public relations bloopers involving Palin. For that reason, her aides said, Palin disregarded the advice of team McCain and started to use her campaign events as a platform for establishing her credentials for a future run for the White House.

A seasoned McCain aide said Palin is looking out for herself more than for the McCain campaign. “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She has no relationship of trust with any of us, her family, or anyone else. Divas trust only themselves.”

Palin’s press secretary, Tracy Schmidt, acknowledged that after the governor’s ill-fated, interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric, senior McCain managers tried to limit her media interactions. Palin’s frustration with this rule led her to take control of her own messages. How this played out was seen in a recent impromptu news conference on a Colorado tarmac. Palin stopped to take some questions and make some comments to the press and McCain staffers tried repeatedly to scuttle the event.

Palin’s loss of confidence in most of the McCain staff spurred Palin to go “off-message,” repeatedly. An advocate for Palin said McCain advisors “… are probably going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves for a failing campaign.”

McCain advisor, Steve Schmidt, gave this rationale for curtailing Palin’s press exposure after her initial interviews, “Her lack of fundamental understanding of key issues was dramatic.” Another aide who had coached Palin for the Gibson and Couric interviews volunteered that it was harder to get her up to speed than probably any candidate in history.

An observer commented sadly that this is what happens with a campaign that’s behind. “It brings out the worst in people, finger pointing and scapegoating.” And then there was the gift that kept on giving - the $150,000 designer wardrobe!

To a campaign audience in Florida, Palin explained, “This whole thing with the wardrobe, I try to just ignore it because it’s so ridiculous, but I’m glad now that [The View's Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who introduced her at the rally,] brought it up. It gives me an opportunity, without the filter of the media, to get to tell you the whole clothes thing…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. I’m back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska.”

Straight-Talk Express, Palin-Style

McCain’s campaign advisors expressed unhappiness with Palin’s sidebar in the court of public opinion. They had delivered the day’s talking points to Palin’s campaign plane that morning, and comments on her high priced shopping loot was definitely not on the list. The campaign “handlers” were attempting to turn media attention off designer labels and back on to straight talk from Senator McCain about the economy. By bringing the issue up again, Palin was shining the floodlights back on the dreaded issue, and guaranteeing another day in the glare of media attention. But what really was going on was that Palin was taking a time out to repair her public image.

The handlers weren’t happy about it. They protested to the press (anonymously) that this was another sign that Palin was “going rogue,” ignoring the campaign playbook in order to launch her own independent drive for the 2012 Presidential election. Palin was going off-script more frequently, complaining about McCain campaign tactics in interviews with sympathetic conservative journalists and talk show hosts.

The picture the McCain campaign wanted to paint was of a “team of mavericks” out to save America from Obama’s nefarious plans (purportedly, to raise taxes on the middle class). In Leesburg, Virginia, Palin was firmly back on message. “What we believe in, John McCain and I, is what Ronald Reagan believed in,” she told the crowd.

Fading in Full Sight

But in the final days of Campaign 2008, a new Pew Poll showed that Palin has become a drag on the Republican ticket. In a nationwide survey Oct. 16-19, Pew found that 49 percent of respondents had unfavorable views of Palin, while 44 percent saw her favorably. A month earlier, 54 percent had seen her favorably and 32 percent viewed her negatively. What accounts for the negative shift? Pundits say that Palin  hurt herself by becoming largely invisible to the general public, except when she got media attention for starting controversies - such as charging that Obama was “palling around with terrorists” - or receiving $150,000 in clothing and accessories from the Republican Party.

Another factor was her exclusive identification with the most conservative wing of the Republican party, making no room for moderates and independents under her tent.

The final factor was what vice-presidential expert Timothy Walch, from the Herbert Hoover presidential library calls, the albatross of American comedy. “Every time (comedian) Tina Fey appeared on Saturday Night Live imitating her, it diminished Palin,” said Walch. “For somebody essentially unknown, she’s diminished when she becomes a caricature of herself.”

Time will tell. But don’t write Palin off just yet. So many people can relate to her! She really appeals to everyday housewives, people who hunt and fish, and those with strong social and cultural “values.” Can she vault to the top of the Republican ticket next time as a moral crusader? She has boundless energy and great determination, says Laura Chase, an acquaintance from Alaska. “I admire her, but the idea that she could be the leader of the free world scares the hell out of me.”

Larry Persily, a senior civil servant who used to work for Palin as well as for three previous Alaska governors, believes Palin is immature, inexperienced, and has poor judgment. Agreeing that she could still become President, he adds, “That should scare the hell out of everybody.”

Meanwhile, she is getting seven figure book deal offers from publishers, proposals for TV shows, and entertainers from Oprah to Ellen have invited her on for guest appearances. She has been recruited to turn out the crowds for Senator Saxby Chambliss’ re-election vote recount, and she continues to stage feel-good interviews with visiting media and press.

Is she running for something? You betcha! If the door opens, she’s ready to barge through it, as she’s told us before.