Authors: McCain aides worried that Palin was ‘mentally unstable’

According to an advance copy thoroughly dog-ear'd by The New York Times, some McCain staffers who worked directly with Palin began to worry that she could be "mentally unstable."

After her misstatements and outright lies repeatedly caused the campaign to stumble and backpedal, a discussion began to emerge: Were McCain to win, how best could they relegate her "to the largely ceremonial role that premodern vice presidents inhabited"?

After all, "it was inconceivable," they wrote, "if McCain fell ill or died, the country be left in the hands of a President Palin," according to the Times.