McCain aides continue to go viciously negative–on their vice presidential candidate. Mike Allen has a McCain aide calling Palin a “whack job.” This is part of the problem with Palin getting assigned aides with no loyalty to her. I’ve never been a “Free Sarah Palin” type. I’m in the Krauthammer school that the McCain campaign probably let her do big high-stakes media interviews too soon and should have waited while she was more fully briefed-up. But the mishandling of Palin that’s been evident over the last week–from the clothes fiasco that wasn’t her doing to the sniping at her from within the campaign–has been appalling.