There are standard, well-tested tactics for coping with VP candidate defects: intense coaching; limiting exposure to the news media; well-designed and controlled campaign events that put the candidate in a good light; one or more keepers who are always with the candidate to keep them on track; and strong support from the campaign and the top of the ticket. Why weren't these approaches used with Palin?
I think that the vain, jealous, and mercurial McCain secretly turned on Palin and set Schmidt the task of tearing her down. I am unaware of any postelection criticism from McCain as what Schmidt and Nicole Wallace did to Palin.
Maybe they just weren’t that good at their jobs. Maybe they didn’t like her and she got on their nerves. Or maybe Palin wasn’t that good at taking direction. If she was determined to do things her way was there all that much that the staff could do to stop her? Trying to destroy your own running mate is too over the top even for McCain. Palin was shaky and uncertain early on, so it wasn’t like McCain would have been jealous of her when the country was still trying to make up its mind about her.
Great analysis. When Sarah Palin never exposed NcCain’s underhanded treatment of her, it revealed the greatness of her character. You will remember that Sarah Palin was never invited to McCain’s funeral. Sarah’s interview with Piers Morgan gives an insight to what I have considered the effort to “get the crap beat out of me” (her words) by the snakes in the GOP, like Schmidt, throughout the campaign and afterwards. She describes the non-invite to the funeral as a “gut punch” that she believes came from others and not McCain himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TetyhaG1f8