Meltdown in McCainsville

Down in the polls, the McCain camp has apparently begun imploding, with rifts emerging between the camp’s chief advisers — Steve Schmitt and Nicole Wallace — and the vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.

The sources of the intra-campaign tension appear to be numerous, with Palin being accused of harboring diva-like pretensions, which she seems to have acquired from the mindless adulation she’s received along the campaign trail. As a result, CNN reports, Palin has in recent days “gone rogue,” offering public remarks that have diverged from the official campaign narrative. At the Politico, Ben Smith reports that a “Palin faction” has begun asserting itself within the campaign, seeking perhaps to cut their losses and position the Alaska governor as an early frontrunner for the 2012 nomination.

Among the more interesting sources of tension within the campaign, Palin and those closest to her have reportedly convinced themselves that Palin should have been allowed to speak to the press earlier and more frequently than she was permitted. Sources within the campaign are unimpressed with the argument:

[T]wo sources, one Palin associate and one McCain adviser, defended the decision to keep her press 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.”

If the reports are true, it’s worth considering the possibility that both Palin and John McCain are, in fact, actually plants from the Democratic Party, surreptitiously guided and developed over the years in order to destroy their Republican rivals. Has anyone seen Donald Segretti recently?