She did not. I listened to the speech.
The interviewer asked why McCain didn’t do something specific to win in 2008 and she answere, “I wasn’t at the top of the ticket”. (trans: ask him, I didn’t make those decisions in HIS campaign.]
Which is true. Bad decision-making by McCain, bad advice from senior staff, take your pick or take both. And despite what some of those staffers would really, really like us to think, the choice of running mate was not one of those bad calls. At least not in my opinion.
I’m not surprised they buggered up the reporting on her. They generally do. But as to the other interpretation...I think it’s fair to say that (at minimum) more than a few Freepers were thinking the exact same thing during the campaign. And some still do.