Palin seperating herself from John McCain

I've been saying for some time that Sarah Palin has been trying to distance herself from the losing McCain campaign and set herself up for 2012. When she publicly questioned the campaigns decision to pull out of Michigan I noted it and in the following weeks we have seen other such pronouncements from Palin. Sarah Palin is a smart politician, she may not be terribly smart when it comes to policy matters but she knows how to position herself politically to maximize her future. The story of her sucking up to the Bill Kristol's of the world during the Weekly Standard and National Review Alaskan cruises is a prime example of this.

With that in mind its hard not to see her obvious and public disagreements with the campaign as part of an effort to seperate herself from the sinking McCain ship. It appears that the national political press is finally catching on, Marc Ambinder today -

There's a faction within the McCain campaign has begun to whisper about Gov. Sarah Palin to reporters. The faction includes staff members and advisers who consult with staff members. It does not seem to include any members of the senior staff, although the definition of the senior staff here is a bit elastic.

This faction has come to believe that Palin, perhaps unwittingly subconsciously or otherwise, has begun to play Sen. McCain off of the base, consistently and deliberately departed from the campaign's message of the day in ways that damage McCain. ("palling around with terrorists" was a line that escaped HQ's vetting... Palin's criticism of the campaign for pulling out of Michigan was greeted by anger internally... Palin's expressed opinion that Rev. Wright is a legitimate issue -- which subtly knocks McCain for not raising it -- was perceived as an attempt to preemptively blame McCain's wobbliness for his loss, which would theoretically enhance Palin's standing with the base.)

Also, don't forget Palin's complaint about the campaigns use of robo calls.

She's been questioning tactics and strategy very publicly for weeks now. This was not by accident. She knows full well that John McCain is going to lose, that the base (who didn't like him much before the election) is going to turn viciously against McCain and that she is in prime position to set herself up as the pre-eminent GOP politician in the country. With no heir-apparent to Bush and with McCain facing a drubbing on November 4th Palin is seizing her opportunity.