She could have just as easily been a former wife or estranged daughter for all the chemistry John McCain and Sarah Palin shared in this evening’s interview with Brian Williams.  Neither maverick has ever been difficult to read, but Palin’s body language was even more transparent than usual.  It’s clear that both consider the other an intolerable anchor on political ambition.  Many are wondering perhaps they both think each is preventing the other from reaching the White House.  Republicans on the outside of this election cycle have been spectulating aloud that Sarah Palin represented the future of the GOP.  Now, they are speculating that the governor’s ambitions are more immediate.

It has been subtle, but under the microscopic media attention that accompanies a national election Sarah Palin is distancing herself noticably from several key McCain positions.  Today is perhaps the most obvious of the campaign thus far.  This very morning she spoke with conservative host Dr. James Dobson, agreeing fundamentally with this year’s Republican platform in its entirety.  Her running mate, notably, disagrees on many key planks including gay marriage, stem cell research, and a constiutional amendment banning abortion.  Perhaps Palin is pushing her folksy persuasion on policy areas beyond drilling in ANWAR.

Certainly revealed in her gaffe concerning the constitutional powers of the office of the Vice President is Sarah Palin’s assumption that at the very least she will have a policy portfolio.  She’s operating with the Bush/Cheney example in mind, though clearly misjudging the experience ratio in that relationship to hers with McCain.  Dick Cheney was the wise old man to counter the relative inexperience of a younger upstart at the top of the ticket.  When the situation is reversed so too are the political results.

Perhaps the most damning evidence of the hockey maverick bolting the stable was her ad hoc admission in today’s interview that she would release her medical records.  Overshadowing the news itself was the fact that the McCain campaign knew nothing about it.  Her words in the interview made it seem innocent:

If that will allow some curiosity seekers, perhaps, to have, oh one more thing that they can either check the box off that they can find something to criticize, perhaps, or find something to rest them assured over, fine.

If Sarah Palin released her medical records right now, what would be the ramifications?  The top of her ticket has refused on multiple occasions over the course of the campaign to release fully his own medical records.  Those medical records would no doubt contain private and previously unknown information on the full extent of his four bouts with cancer.  With as much medical history as any 72 year old man would have, forcing McCain to release his records would produce day after day of medical stories, featuring prominently words like “cancer” and “melanoma” and “surgery.”  For as many as three or four days the McCain message would be dwarfed by the din of the press devouring his medical history.  With thirteen days to go and by some measures thirteen points down, it is a neverending news cycle John McCain just cannot afford right now.

So, the question comes back to the running mate with the running mouth.  If the release of medical records would cause such hardship for the campaign, why would she do it?  To assure some “curiosity seekers?”  A presidential candidate refusing to release records after the vice presidential candidate on the same ticket as already agreed to do so is a no-win political predicament.  A four time cancer survivor releasing his medical records less than two weeks before Election Day is a no-win political predicament.

Now either Sarah Palin didn’t know that… or she did.

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