Who's the Leaker? (Hint: it was Nicole Wallace)

If you missed Marc Ambinder's post featuring several McCain campaign emails that do a great deal to discredit much of the Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" criticism of said campaign, enjoy.

I have really nothing more to add to except the obvious question: Where did the email come from?

My guess is Nicole Wallace. Of course I have no evidence of this, just conjecture.

The first sign is the salutation of the first email: "fellas." In my experience this is a dead give away that the author is a female working among mostly males. I can't speak to the rhetorical value or purpose of beginning an email in this way, but it's just something we've noticed over the years, both in speech and in written memos.

The second bit of relevant information is the emphasis on press related events in the second email. The first two of three we-were-informeds are related with communications aspects of the campaign and Ambinder basically introduces it as proof that Palin's "caged bird" memories are a little hazy.

The third sign is that both email are written by someone who genuinely cares about crafting a message, regardless of the size of the audience. In the first email, there are very few abbreviations and a rather detailed account of events. You don't get this kind of clarity in writing from IT folks. The second email used repetition and rhythm extremely effectively.

I should probably be a bit more clear about this: I'm more confident that Wallace was the author of both these email than I am that she was the actual leaker, though I think she has a lot of motive rebut many of the accusations in "Rogue."