Palin "goes rogue"

While watching the VP debates my brilliant and beautiful wife commented that it seemed to her that Palin was less interested in winning this election than she was in positioning herself for the next one. The national press is finally getting it, too. This from CNN:

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue” recently, while a Palin associate says she is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a mishandled roll-out that damaged her.

McCain sources point to several incidents where Palin has gone off message, and privately wonder if they were deliberate. For example: labeling robo calls “irritating,” even as the campaign was defending the use of them and telling reporters she disagreed with the campaigns controversial decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source tells CNN she appears to now be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

While the McCain campaign goes down in flames, the newest darling of the neocons is the only person positioned to get any long-term advantage. A paranoid question: were the advisors who pushed for Palin hoping something like this would happen? McCain, despite towing the line in this campaign, was always too unpredictable (and autonomous) for many "conservative" true believers.