Sarah Palin is drawing jeers from the campaign’s big boys for refusing to stick to their script and seeming to reject the notion of an ‘08 victory. She’s clearly ticked off at how the campaign handled coverage of her $150,000 wardrobe and repeatedly sets her own course.

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” this McCain adviser said. “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.”

George Stephanopoulos (failing to heed the “Dewey Defeats Truman” Cassandras) says” Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign’s post-mortem.”

Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.

They point to the bounce in the polls McCain got when he announced Palin as his running mate, her Republican convention speech, and her first interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson.

What didn’t work were the limited, subsequent media interviews, most notably between Palin and CBS anchor Katie Couric.

But some McCain camp insiders tell ABC News they simply couldn’t put Palin out in front of the media any more than they did because she wasn’t ready.

The Palin camp is fighting back, arguing that if the McCain campaign had just let Sarah Palin be Sarah Palin, she would have done just fine on her own.

The Alaska governor herself has been pushing out on her own against McCain’s handlers.

In recent days she has been speaking her own mind about what she thought of McCain’s strategy in Michigan, and what she thought of his decision not to go after Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And we’re seeing more and more of that in the closing days of the campaign.

According to the United Kingdom’s Daily Telegraph, McCain thinks the rift is nothing but giggles:

Speaking about the Republican campaign at a rally in Pennsylvania he said “when two mavericks join up, we don’t agree on everything, but that’s a lot of fun”.

The presidential candidate gave one of his now trademark awkward grins as he made the remark standing in front of her at a joint appearance.