Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says.

This is the danger in hiring someone simply to please the base, they actually start to believe their own publicity and imagining that the person that hired them is holding them back.

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN 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," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

When things go badly she can tell herself that it's not because she doesn't know what she is talking about, she tells herself that she is being asked "trick questions". And the entire Republican movement lined up behind her to insist that there were "several Bush doctrines" and that no-one would have been able to answer such a question. A question which she blatantly simply didn't understand.

Likewise, when the McCain camp hold her back to prevent her from making an utter fool of herself and the campaign, she tells herself that they are "caging" her and that the reason that she is receiving bad publicity is their fault rather than hers.

The thing that has been most striking about Palin is her extraordinary combination of over confidence and ignorance. It was this which enabled her to wink several times during a Vice Presidential debate, which she opened stating that she would not answer any of the questions put to her but would rather use the opportunity to address the American people.

It was quite a breathtaking way to turn the negative of your own ignorance into the positive of refusing to be boxed in.

At that point one had to admit that she might not have anything else, but the lady had balls.

And that's the danger for McCain as they enter the blame game. Palin and a large part of the lunatic fringe - which constitute what's left of the Republican base - don't see her as the problem, they see McCain as the problem.

They actually think she could one day lead the party.

"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."

It's a frightening prospect and it's one for which McCain only has himself to blame. He plucked this woman from obscurity, because his own views were not extreme enough to please the Malkins of this world, and the Malkins are running with her. Believing that the reason they are losing is McCain's fault rather than public reticence to elect someone who would force a fifteen year old raped by her father to carry her child for the full term.

"She's no longer playing for 2008; she's playing 2012," Democratic pollster Peter Hart said. "And the difficulty is, when she went on 'Saturday Night Live,' she became a reinforcement of her caricature. She never allowed herself to be vetted, and at the end of the day, voters turned against her both in terms of qualifications and personally."

She doesn't realise the damage that she did to the ticket. She hears only the screaming crowds and convinces herself that she is the star and that McCain and his staff are holding her back.

When this is all over Palin will be a codeword for an ill thought out decision which could cost an election, for the danger of the Hail Mary pass.

Poor Sarah doesn't see it that way. And who can blame her? Her knowledge of politics was never the reason that she was hired. It would be churlish to now demand that she understand the ramifications of McCain's fateful choice.

UPDATE:

Tomasky talks of Palin "going rogue".

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Tags: Palin, McCain, Biden, Obama, US election 2008