In 2000, Al Gore lost the election. In 2006, he came out with “An Inconvenient Truth,” at which point the American people discovered that Gore’s advisers had muzzled him from speaking openly about the environment for fear of losing votes in industrial states like Michigan in Pennsylvania.
In less than two weeks, if current metrics can be believed, John McCain will lose this election. My question: when will McCain admit that — worn out from months on the trail — he relied too much on his advisers, strayed from his bipartisan message and allowed his campaign to make reckless choices in the quest for the Presidency?
There have been two excellent behind-the-scenes stories this week on the McCain campaign, including this from the New Yorker and another from the New York Times. Then, just this morning, comes news that makes me think that there’s even more behind-the-scenes chaos on the way:
Four Republicans close to [Sarah] Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain’s camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain’s decline.
“She’s lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,” said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to “go rogue” in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.
“I think she’d like to go more rogue,” he said.
I do not know what “more rogue” could possibly mean. More mavericky, perhaps? Or, perhaps, will she push for independence in unlikely places? I’m not sure. But any backstory involving Sarah Palin, the guys who’ve been advising the current, wildly upopular president and the spokespersons who slimed McCain in 2000 must be incredible.