"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. 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." (an adviser to Sen. John McCain, to CNN)"I think she'd like to go more rogue." (a GOP official, to Politico)
"She's lost faith with the staff. She knows the $150,000 wardrobe story damaged her. (But) she's an adult. She didn't ask questions about where the clothes came from?" (a McCain-Palin aide, to the New York Post)
"She's now positioning herself for her own future. Of course, this is bad for John. It looks like no one is in charge." (a senior McCain-Palin adviser, to the New York Post)
"She's no longer playing for 2008; she's playing 2012. 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." (Peter Hart, Democratic pollster, to CNN)
"It’s a sign of undisciplined people who do not have loyalty that they ought to have to the candidate." (Karl Rove, former advisor to Pres. George W. Bush, to Politico, on finger-pointing within McCain-Palin)
