John McCain declared defiantly yesterday that he would emerge victorious from next week’s presidential election even as campaign tensions — including with his running-mate Sarah Palin — descended into a semi-public brawl over who to blame for defeat.

“I guarantee you that two weeks from now, you will see this has been a very close race and I believe that I’m going to win it,” said the Republican nominee. “I see intensity out there, and I see passion. So we’re very competitive.” His words came after The New York Times published an 8,500-word article that amounted to a postmortem examination on the constantly shifting campaign themes that have weakened his brand and left voters bewildered.

Campaign insiders, as well as a host of outside second-guessers, already appear to be forming a “circular firing squad” around each other — a familiar phenomenon after elections but rare in a race that still has more than a week to go.

They are queueing up to deliver scathing verdicts on the lack of co-ordination and message discipline, as well as a series of strategic mistakes including his choice of Mrs Palin, that have characterised Mr McCain’s run for the White House. Many are fixing their sights on Mrs Palin, saying that the choice of a running-mate with such scant experience and bipartisan appeal undermined Mr McCain’s key argument of being a steady hand who would put “country first” in a time of crisis.

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Even his own aides have begun using her for target practice in recent days, claiming that she has behaved “like a diva”, ignoring their advice, contradicting Mr McCain in public and “positioning herself for her own future” in the 2012 Republican presidential primary.

They cite Mrs Palin’s criticism of the campaign’s use of automated robo-calls against Barack Obama, its decision to pull out of Michigan earlier this month and Mr McCain’s refusal to raise the Democrat’s relationship with his former pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright. She has also distanced herself from his policy position on gay marriage and oil drilling in Alaskan wildlife reserves.

Mrs Palin’s allies say that she has lost faith in Mr McCain’s senior advisers, Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, for mismanaging a media strategy that resulted in disastrous TV interviews.

According to the Politico website she fears that they are “going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves”.

She is now said to be relying more on her own instincts, giving off-the-cuff interviews to the press — even though her campaign handlers have tried to stop her — and substantive policy speeches.

The public derision directed at her last week when it was disclosed that $150,000 (£95,000) had been spent by the Republican National Committee on her wardrobe has widened disenchantment with the campaign. In Iowa at the weekend, she made a point of declaring that she was wearing “my own jacket”.

Mr McCain, in an interview with the NBC Meet the Press programme yesterday, said that he felt no need to defend his running-mate because “I’m so proud of her”. He added that a third of the clothes had been handed back and the rest would be donated to charity after the election. “She lives a frugal life . . . she’s a role model to millions and millions and millions of Americans,” he said.

Karl Rove, the former chief strategist to President Bush, said that the finger-pointing within Republican ranks is a “sad sight to see” and “a sign of undisciplined people who do not have loyalty”.

But Bill Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and a leading advocate for Mrs Palin, said that she had been let down by the campaign, which had “bottled her up”.

He added: “The staff has not served her well by hiding her and not having confidence.”

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