Mac Aides: Palin 'Going Rogue'

Sarah Palin is acting like she's more concerned with Palin 2012 than McCain 2008, disgruntled McCain staffers tell CNN. They say the candidate is increasingly going off-message, including at a recent Florida rally where she addressed the $150,000 wardrobe controversy by declaring that the clothes "are not my property—just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased."

"She is a diva," said one McCain aide. "She is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party." A Palin associate said the candidate was merely trying to "bust free" of what she sees as campaign mismanagement. A Republican strategist acknowledged that the campaign "mishandled" Palin early on. Still, he added, "she's definitely going to be the most popular Republican in this country when this thing is over." (More Election 2008 stories.)