Via Marc Ambinder, check out this e-mail from McCain campaign aide Nicolle Wallace to Sarah Palin, dated October 4, 2008 -- before Palin's infamous "palling around with terrorists" attack line:

Governor and Team: rick [Davis], Steve [Schmidt] and I suggest the following attack from the new york times. If you are comfortable, please deliver the attack as written. Please do not make any changes to the below without approval from steve or myself because precision is crucial in our ability to introduce this.

The line they suggested:

This is not a man who sees American as you and I do -- as the greatest force for good in the world. This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.

Here's the line Palin delivered:

Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America.

Ambinder got his hands on the e-mails from an advance copy of a new book on the 2008 campaign by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson of The Washington Post.

This seems sure to spark another blaze between Palin's defenders -- who will claim this as a vindication, that she is in fact a loyal Republican teamplayer -- and her detractors, who have tried to pin John McCain's loss on her shoulders.

At the end of the day, Palin still must take responsibility for delivering the line, but it's valuable to know that she wasn't going rogue -- she was following orders from the HQ. She deserves all the grief she's gotten for delivering the line, but so to do John McCain and the GOP operatives who ran his campaign.