It’s generally accepted that the job of the Vice-Presidential candidate is to throw elbows so the Presidential nominee doesn’t have to–to be an enforcer, in hockey parlance.

However, it seems that Sarah Palin’s Todd Bertuzzi tactics may have finally gotten to McCain.

With his electoral prospects fading by the day, Senator John McCain has fallen out with his vice-presidential running mate about the direction of his White House campaign.
…
Mark Salter, McCain’s long-serving chief of staff, is understood to have told campaign insiders that he would prefer his boss, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, to suffer an “honourable defeat” rather than conduct a campaign that would be out of character – and likely to lose him the election.
…
Palin is no longer helping to attract women and independent voters to the Republican ticket. A poll for Fox News last week showed that while 47% of voters regard the Alaska governor favourably, 42% now have an unfavourable opinion of her.

FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver thinks that instead of trying to salvage his honor, McCain might be trying to revive his “maverick” persona:

The McCain campaign is planning on a major “reboot” of its campaign in some point in advance of Wednesday night’s debate. This will take on something of the form that Bill Kristol advocates in his must-read Monday AM piece in the Times, including some combination of (i) pledging to run a positive campaign; (ii) firing/demoting Steve Schmidt and or/Rick Davis; (iii) apologizing for his campaign’s tone.

Links:
McCain tussles with Palin over whipping up a mob mentality (Times Online)
Is Drudge Priming a McCain “Reboot” Narrative? (FiveThirtyEight)

More potentially-related posts:

1. It’s never too early to panic.
2. Would Bin Laden endorse McCain-Palin?
3. She cannae take much more of this, Cap’n!