The Newsweek reporters who were covering Sarah Palin behind the scenes for the past eight weeks talk about what they observed:
And if you thought that the infighting didn’t start until after the votes were counter, you were wrong:
On the last flight home to Arizona, McCain came back to say goodbye to the reporters he had long since virtually stopped speaking to, still stunned by what he viewed as personal betrayal by friends in the press corps. “Feelin’ good, feelin’ confident about the way things have turned out,” the candidate said, delivering the necessary white lie. “We’ve spent a lot of time together … We’ve had a great time. I wish all of you every success and look forward to being with you in the future.” Behind him, Cindy McCain did not disguise her feelings. She teared up and looked drained. So did McCain’s traveling buddies Lieberman and Lindsey Graham.
Steve Schmidt spoke briefly with the reporters. “Are you happy with the campaign?” he was asked. He answered: “I think we did our absolute best in really difficult circumstances … It is highly doubtful that anyone will have to run in a worse political climate than the one John McCain had to run in this year.” Another reporter asked if he was happy with “the pick of Palin.” He ducked the question. Schmidt was trying, not very hard, to hide his true feelings. He had been compelled to personally take over Palin’s debate prep when she seemed unwilling to engage in the drudge work of learning the issues. McCain’s advisers had been frustrated when Palin refused to talk to donors because she found it corrupting, and they were furious when they heard rumors that Todd Palin was calling around to Alaska bigwigs telling them to hold their powder until 2012. The day of the third debate, Palin refused to go onstage with New Hampshire GOP Sen. John Sununu and Jeb Bradley, a New Hampshire congressman running for the Senate, because they were pro-choice and because Bradley opposed drilling in Alaska. The McCain campaign ordered her onstage at the next campaign stop, but she refused to acknowledge the two Republican candidates standing behind her. McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin (perhaps once a week when they were not traveling together, estimated one adviser). Aides kept him in the dark about Palin’s spending on clothes because they were sure he’d be offended. In his concession speech, McCain praised Palin, but the body language between them onstage was not particularly friendly. (Palin had asked to speak; Schmidt vetoed the request.)
As I’ve said before, if the McCain people think that Palin hurt them, and they have ample reason to think so, then they really have nobody to blame but themselves and the man at the top of the ticket.
