I watched Game Change last night. If you want a good review, read Charles Pierce. He nails it. The acting is superb. The script is just okay. John McCain gets the kid-glove treatment. Sarah Palin is torn to shreds but her debate performance is portrayed as a triumph, whereas it was really the most bizarre hour and a half in American political history. The movie explains why. After they gave up on teaching Palin the History of the World (which she didn’t know anything about), they resorted to having her memorize a couple dozen scripted answers. It didn’t matter what she was asked, she answered with the most suitable memorized answer. She wasn’t capable of learning anything, but she knew how to play a role.
If anything, the people responsible for giving us Sarah Palin are treated too sympathetically. And, of course, it falls short of great Greek Tragedy because no one dies and Steve Schmidt doesn’t scratch out his own eyes. Julianne Moore is brilliant and she looks exactly like Palin. Woody Harrelson does a very good job, although his resemblance to Schmidt is less uncanny. Ed Harris plays a well-lubricated John McCain, seen with a glass of whisky or vodka in nearly every scene. This made me wonder if he was not the more dangerous of the two.
Perhaps because McCain has never dissed Sarah to Mark Halperin, he is portrayed as undismayed by and mostly sympathetic about his running-mate’s shortcomings. The truth is probably much harsher.
Since Schmidt was mainly responsible for the two biggest blunders of McCain’s campaign (picking Palin and suspending his campaign during the financial meltdown), he doesn’t come off very well. But McCain was the one who hired him and listened to him. He is ultimately Oedipus Rex here. But you won’t get that from watching the movie.
Oh lordy I wish I could photoshop like driftglass…I just flashed on a mashup of “Game Change” and this
Could not see it (no teevee) but watched the trailer from which it is clear that they were letting McCain off the hook. what’s the story with the glass of whiskey/ vodka in nearly every scene? is that accurate? I interpret McCain as reckless and somewhat desperate. He’s been a “kept man” (supported by his wife in a lavish lifestyle) most of his adult life. Woody Harrelson is a fine actor, not surprising he does good with his role.
This was my thought right after watching “Game Change”
Sympathy wouldn’t been had if their was no attempt to prep her for the interviews and such. Nicole Wallace attempted to do so and if the movie is to be believed Palin DID NOT even try to prep.
Sympathy was lost when she accepted the invite to be on the ticket. People who don’t know their limitations are bound to fail and guess what Palin obviously thought more of her ability than anyone else seem to.
Sympathy would have been had except I begin to think what would have happened if Obama had lost. Sarah Palin with nuclear codes…think about that.
Personally as a woman myself, I was insulted by how easy it was for Sarah Palin to get away with so much ignorance cause she was “easy on the eyes”. Let’s be kind a clear why they picked her. Wasn’t Kay Bailey Hutchinson a possible contenders since it was becoming obvious that they were gonna pick a woman. They may have actually won with Kay Bailey
they needed someone with a stronger anti-choice record than Kay.
When they were testing Lieberman, they found that 40% of their base was less likely to vote with a pro-choice veep.
Psych research has found that incompetent people fail to recognize their own limitations. It’s a double-whammy of incompetence.
this was one of my beefs, especially with the MSM, because they danced around the issue.
John McCain was a 72 year old man.
a man who spent years being a POW.
a man who had already have HOW MANY rounds of cancer?
the stress of the Presidency wears anybody down.
and, this man, put, at a possible heartbeat away….
this unqualified grifter.
I’m waiting for John McCain to apologize to this country.
………………………..
it wasn’t like the Sarah Palin was the ONLY Republican female choice.
unlike Black Repulican officials, there is an actual POT of Republican female politicians, a number of them with YEARS of experience.
McCain could have chosen ANY of the GOP Female Senators…
He could have chosen any of the GOP Female Governors that ACTUALLY COMPLETED A TERM OR TWO.
but, he didn’t.
he chose this incompetent woman.
I have to tell you, as Sarah Palin I prefer Andy Samburg, last night on SNL. He was utterly ridiculous and obviously unsuitable for the presidency. In other words, pitch-perfect.
He may not have looked like her, but for a brief, awkwardly stupid moment, he had her soul. What there is of it.
Hate to play schoolteacher, but it’s Charles Pierce.
I just watched it. What struck me the most was that Sarah Palin was (is) one of the Republican base’s own who somehow managed to become a governor. She’s a know-nothing. I have a BFA in painting and have a much deeper understanding of government and history than she does, and she was almost one heartbeat away from the presidency. As Booman has said many times, McCain weaponized the stupid, and never was it so apparent as in this film. Yes, it made McCain out to be more principled than he really is. Yes, it made it out to seem Palin won the debate with Biden even though in reality it was a wash (and the film basically showed that she was memorizing lines anyway). And yet somehow people like Palin think that they, in their ignorance, know what’s best for the rest of us. It’s a truly frightening concept. That’s the conundrum in the present-day Republican party. They’ve cultivated the stupid for so long that it’s reached into their ranks and is threatening to strangle any credibility they may have once held on policy.
Unfortunately that holds for congresscritters as well. Formulating laws in a complex world with 0 knowledge to start with. Now that I think about it, maybe it’s good that they’re spending this term naming post offices.
still waiting for McCain’s apology to the country.
Yer quite crazy.