IT'S A new twist on "wardrobe malfunction". Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, went back to wearing her own clothes, swapping designer dresses for jeans, after becoming furious with party officials who spent $150,000 (£96,000) on new outfits, stylists and make-up for her.
The Alaskan governor's rejection of the attempt to enhance her image is indicative of a deeper split between Mrs Palin and the team appointed by the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, to advise her during the election campaign.
With
defeat staring Mr McCain in the face, recriminations have reportedly begun between his advisers and those of running-mate Mrs Palin about who is to blame for what many fear is an electoral disaster.
Republican officials are quoted in the US media as claiming that Mrs Palin has begun to "go rogue", ignoring the advisers Mr McCain has installed on her campaign plane to get her own message out.
"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the (campaign] plane," one senior Republican told the online news service Politico.com. Mrs Palin is reportedly furious at the continuing row over the $150,000 bill the Republican National Committee chalked up to provide her with clothes, stylists and make-up.
In the clearest public sign of the split, she ditched her expensive wardrobe in favour of home-grown outfits. "I am going to be back to wearing my own clothes from my favourite consignment store in Anchorage, Alaska," she said during a campaign stop in Tampa, Florida, adding that she was wearing "my own jacket".
As if to underline her decision, Mrs Palin appeared at an event in North Carolina on Sunday in decidedly "Hockey Mom" jeans.
But the split appears to go deeper than just apparel: McCain aides and Mrs Palin's own small team both blame the other for a botched campaign in which she has come to be seen by many voters as unsuitable to be elected as vice-president.
Under fire is Mrs Palin's key adviser, Nicolle Wallace, a former aide to the president, George Bush, who took Mrs Palin under her wing after she was Mr McCain's surprise choice as running-mate.
Mr McCain's staffers say she erred in first preventing Mrs Palin from facing the media, and then for allowing too much time for her to be grilled by the CBS anchor Katie Coric in a gaffe-prone interview that the television station spread out over several days of prime-time coverage.
In the interview, Mrs Palin could not name any US media she read, nor cite any Supreme Court case other than Roe vs Wade, the landmark abortion law ruling.
Mr McCain remains, at least publicly, Mrs Palin's gallant defender, insisting that the clothes bought for her by the party would be given to charity and no blame should accrue to her for the extravagance.
Mrs Palin seems to be doing nothing to ease the tensions, telling reporters on one campaign stop that she disagreed with Mr McCain's decision to stop campaigning in the potential swing state of Michigan.
At the centre of the row is the argument about whether Mrs Palin, an increasingly unpopular figure among swing voters, has been handled correctly, or even whether Mr McCain was right to pick such a political novice in the first place. However, her ability to connect with the right wing of the Republican party on its core issues – God, guns and abortion – is not in doubt.
