"Game Change" discussion.

Be sure to watch 60 minutes tonight;

Oh shit, I guess I'm buying this tomorrow. Look at that.

Thanks for letting me know about it!

Just read the excerpt about Edwards, what a shit show. Edwards was always my favorite of all the Democratic candidates in 08, although I never thought he stood a chance of winning. I'm embarrassed I ever liked this guy, each bit of info that comes out makes him look like an even bigger scumbag.

Thank GOD he didn't end up winning Iowa, who knows what could have happened.

A lot of McCain Schmidt stuff was in the Newsweek exposé, and Gawker had a lot of the Edwards stuff. Two bits of trivia that stand out as new: "Can I call you Joe?" was not a head game but to avoid saying "O'Biden." And Elizabeth Edwards exposing herself and saying "look at me!" in a parking lot.

Overall, both the article and the TV segment were depressing.

If anything, this book sounds like it's going to make a lot of recently-dispirited folks once again feel a hell of a lot better about Obama winning. Sounds like the nation dodged a lot of bullets.

The 60 minutes segment was horrible. It's almost like they had an interview with Schmidt and then found out about the book. Most of what Schmidt was saying we already know, and really ... we can all tell the obvious that Palin was out of her element.

I wish they talked more about the book. If not, don't get Schmidt get away with the fact that he ran the disastrous campaign that made the horrible choice of choosing Palin in the first place. Every time he complains about her, he says it like it wasn't hi fault.

BTW Anderson Cooper is part of 60 Minutes?!?!

I like Schmidt, personally. I saw him on CSPAN talking about the campaign a month before Palin's book came out. He was extremely gratious to Palin saying that "we were never close to Obama except for the week we picked her". Then Palin gets on his ass for using the word fuck during the campaign.

He sounded like a reasonable guy who saw that the Republican party needed to change. He said Gay Marriage and other social issues were a losing issue and that the Republicans needed to reach out to Latinos if they wanted to keep their status as a national party.

He came off much better than the typical Rove and Atwater types that you see run republican campagins. Its a shame that his career is over in the party.

We've had a galley of this at the store for weeks. It's really just a political version of Hollywood Babylon. If you desire to revel in the petty and very human shortcomings of these people (and in this forum, there's no doubt of that!) you'll enjoy it.

Frankly, it's the kind of thing that would have made a more significant and useful impact had it been (impossibly) divulged last fall. There have been other glimpses into the seedy machinations of the election season, most (like Newsweek's) struck while the iron was hot and could potentionally help mold realistic expectations of the new administration and the destructive opposition. It also may have opened a few more eyes on the dangers posed by a personality like Palin. Of course, anyone still drawn to her after the Nuremberg Convention is beyond hope anyway.

Right now, most of the book reads like a sordid rehash of the dribs and drabs of unmasking that's gone on for over a year now. Quite honestly, it made a weirdly suitable followup to that sordid Merv Griffin: A Life In The Closet, written by a tenacious crank with a huge axe to grind concerning Griffin's homosexuality. Exploitive and with little restraint or regard for decorum (on one page, a photo of Merv having a smoke is labeled "Merv with fag."), the book is the kind of blunt opptunistic swill that one would think went out of vogue years ago.

Both books smacked of the same sleazy motive. In fact, I wasn't even going to bother commenting on Game Change, save for the opportunity to pimp the Griffin book to an audience that seems oddly geared for it.

Crawsticker: Labeling Edwards wife as paranoid only works if he in fact wasn't a worrisome cheating shitstick. People ought to at least get that straight. I guess the "sources" for some of the anecdotes have never lived a day in their lives as an actual human being.

ps. Kenneth Anger's book is better.

So, have you read the book or are you basing this off of skimming a few pages of the galley?

So this book is not about "Avatar?"

Did you read what I wrote or are you basing that on skimming my post?

I read both. Halfway through Game Change, I realized the substance was more TMZ than Inside Washington. The word tawdry springs to mind. At least, the Griffin book is more honest out of the gate. Intellectually, you'd do yourself more of a service with a Sidney Sheldon.

However, if you take Fox News and the like as sincere sources of information, you're exactly who it's aimed at. That's the case for Game Change, too.

So you're saying their information is irresponsibly not fact based? Because Reid didn't dispute that one comment and it made lots of news. I only see Palin saying the book is inaccurate.

No, I read your post. Problem was so much of it nonsensical it made me wonder if you actually read the book or condemned it based upon excerpts. Nuremberg Convention? Would have been more relevant if it came out while it was actually happening? An irrelevant book because it covers ground already covered by an 8-page Newsweek article?

I'm finding it to be a pretty typical political post-mortem. It's pretty interesting because of the inside sources they have to bring to light details and narratives we haven't really read before. I'm about 50 pages in and I'm finding it to be nothing like what you've described. It's not like some breathless and catty gossip tell-all about who slept with whom. In fact, it's been pretty evenhanded and fair in its treatment of Obama and Clinton so far. Yes, Harry Reid's controversial comment was in there. The book also points out that Obama probably wouldn't have decided to run in 2008 without Harry Reid being the first to call Obama to his office and convince him that he should run. The book also begins with a pretty cool description of Obama chilling and playing basketball on the day of the Iowa Caucuses while his advisers are going nuts with the stress. Maybe it's not as nakedly partisan for your people or team for your tastes. That's not why these authors wrote the book. It's not a damn advocacy piece. In the authors' words, they wanted it to fit somewhere between reporting (happening now) and history (after enough time has passed for serious reflection of the significance of events). They seem to be succeeding so far. But maybe I'll come to the same conclusion you did when I'm halfway through.

The NY Mag excerpt made me really interested in reading this. I've been looking for a good, solid book about the campaign with just enough drama and "revelations" to make the narrative fresh. I wasn't impressed with what I read of Plouffe's book, and the less said about my experience "Going Rogue," the better.

Not that we didn't see this coming a mile away, and as of this morning, it's probably old news by now:

The dude is toast.

Almost finished with the book. Man, the Obamas come out of this as the only really "normal" couple. Sure, Obama is arrogant and ambitious. But this book shows that he appears to have a real passion for trying to make a positive difference in people's lives. Despite his good intentions, I disagree with him on a lot of issues. But after reading this far, I respect him more as a person. Michelle too. This book also makes it pretty clear that Obama got a virtual free ride from the press compared to other candidates. Obama's people would feed negative stories about opponents to the press and it would become front page news. Clinton's people couldn't get the press to pick up on any negative whispers about Obama, even when it was Bill himself shopping the stories to reporters supposedly friendly to the Clintons.

Speaking of the Clintons, their marriage is an enigma that will never be understood. You have mentions of Bill's rampant infidelity, of which Hillary is very aware. You also see tender moments, fierce personal loyalty, respect, and love between Bill and Hillary.

The authors are brutal with Edwards. Even after the photos of came out with Edwards holding the baby he now admits is his, he still believed he could leverage the AG spot from Obama. Virtually no one in the Senate appears to have ever liked this guy. Senators on both sides of the aisle wrote him off pretty quickly as a lightweight phony. It's easy to argue that this impression has been more than vindicated by recent history.

The McCains seem to have a marriage a lot like the Clintons'. They scream, yell, and swear at each other and you have rumors of infidelities. At the same time they seem completely devoted to one another. The book didn't spend as much time with the Republican candidates, but the complete weakness of that field is hard to overstate. McCain ran a horrible primary campaign and only emerged as the nominee because of the weaknesses and missteps of his primary opponents.

These are my impressions so far. I just got to the point where Sarah Palin was named as McCain's running mate. Should be a fun finish, even though I know how it ends.

no lie if Cindy McCain came up to me and was all like "Fuck me like my husband can't" I'd probably do it

I'm almost finished, too, although I'm further than jvc. Man, Bill Clinton was just a disaster for his wife. My reading of it is that the Republicans were the most disorganized, but man, they had the best one liners.

Schmidt comes out as the closest Malcolm Tucker analogue, for the record.

And I'm surprised that nobody in the press/on the internet has picked up on this, possibly The Best Obama Story Ever:

And because it never gets old:

It could only be better if Obama forwarded it to someone.

Yeah, like Pelosi and Reid--that great comedy duo from the Catskills!

The Clinton and McCain relationships aren't all that enigmatic if you read Savage Love with any regularity. If you take the letters at face value, lots of generally happily-married couples are into open marriage. But can you imagine someone holding a political office or campaigning for one using that term? That would doom you faster than calling yourself an atheist.

This sounds like a smuttier version of "The Battle for America 2008" by Haynes Johnson and Dan Balz.

Anyone read both? How do they really compare?

Oh, dude, no. No, you don't want to say these things. This guy is actually worse than Rove and Atwater. He's the entire reason that McCain's campaign took the nasty turn towards the right-wing base. He's the reason that the last days of the campaign were devoted to dealing with robocalls claiming that Barack Obama was in favor of legalizing infanticide. Schmidt's name is synonymous with the worst of American politics. He is easily the most hated man in California politics for that reason.

...did you really need 60 Minutes to tell you that?

He was responsible for vietnam vet Gary Davis getting recalled infavor of the terminator?

Borrow from the library. Not really worth paying for, as it's incredibly entertaining, but I wonder if it will stand the test of time.

I know this is dredging up a very old thread, but it seems only fitting as this is due in March.

 

 

This new HBO film follows John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, from his selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, to their ultimate defeat in the general election. "Game Change" premieres on March 10th.

 

Focusing solely on Palin was a huge mistake. They should have adapted the entire book, both sides, the primaries and the general. It could have been spectacular. They could have even done in a heightened reality sort of fashion and turned it into a really scathing satire (which the book bordered on anyway). 

 

But this melodramatic garbage doesn't really appeal to me. Too bad, because it's one of the most interesting stories of modern USA history. 

Agreed. Looks like it'll be two hours of "Look how stupid Sarah Palin is". I lean left on most issues, but not covering the Obama/Hilary aspect reeks of not wanting to make the current President look bad.

Holy shit.  From VTRan's description and the image of Palin on the video before you start loading it... I thought that it really was Palin and that the film was just a documentary about the McCain/Palin ticket.  Didn't fully realize what was going on until I saw... ED HARRIS as McCain. 

 

Yeah, this doesn't look very good.  It looks like exactly what you'd expect something like this to look like.

Quote:

just to be clear, that was just the HBO 'blurb' describing the movie.

 

I'm a little torn....it does look quite sensationalistic in a National Enquirer sort of way but I like Ed Harris and Julianne Moore and really want to see what they do with the roles.

Unfortunately, this movie may just be another reason for the real SP to jump back into the media spotlight...and this just as she was starting to disappear into the mists of political history.

On the other hand, maybe this movie will be a bookend to her career as a public figure....people will finally be sick of her and stop giving her opinions any weight. (and there are quite a few out there still that think SP is "great")

 

??

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI

'Game Change' premieres on HBO tomorrow night 3/10

I never read the book but I am DYING to see this. 

 

 Actually, from everything I'm reading, the movie goes out of its way to humanize Palin, making her look like someone who got in way over her head way too fast. Which is the main reason why I'll be skipping it. I have no intention of ever feeling sorry for that woman.

I've been watching this as I type...I don't think Palin isn't being humanized at all.

 

If anything, I feel a good deal of sympathy for the people that had to work with her.

I think Julianne Moore did a bang up job but the movie does not get that weird thing that she always did that made her connect so thoroughly with the right wing base and that was her sense of bitter, knowing persecution.  I can't put it into words adequately.  I thought it was well done, all the acting was great.  The campaign staffers come off sympathetically because it's based on their book, but I think what it most reveals is their frustrations with trying to work with her, not the whole of her persona/effect.

Mixed feelings about the movie.   While the production values are good, the performances stellar, and the writing amazing, it comes across as a hatchet job or to put it more accurately making fun of the kid with downs syndrome.   It feels like the movie is saying "Look how dumb this woman is.  Har-har."   That's the problem with making a movie about Sarah Palin and what really happened behind the scenes.   By all accounts, she was a clusterfuck of epic proportions and she was (and still is probably) that intellectually incurious about the world and civics so anyone who makes a movie about that is facing an uphill battle.

 

Having read the book, I'm curious why only a chapter or two of the book got adapted and not the more interesting story of Obama and the Clintons.   I'm hoping HBO will revisit this book and adapt THAT next year after the elections.   The stuff on the Democratic side is so much more interesting than whatever happened with Palin (since we all kinda figured out she was stupid, mean woman) that it feels like a real missed opportunity.   Still it was a good movie and worth checking out.   Just wish it were part of a more comprehensive miniseries.

Very little new information of course, but I thought it was pretty funny. I especially liked Harrelson's various stares (which went from the slowly dawning realization that he's dealing with a complete idiot, to barely contained rage), any time Harris yelled "THEY'RE FUCKING WITH ME!" and:

 

"Do you think we can start her off with something a little more basic?"

 

"How basic?"

 

[Cut to world map]

 

"THIS COUNTRY IS CALLED GERMANY."

The one thing that I need to look up to make sure it's true is Palin's answer to how we're going to deal with Britain over the Iraq War moving forward.   My mouth hung wide open at her answer...

 

Paraphrasing....

 

"Well we've always had a good relationship with the Queen and I think we should strengthen those bonds moving forward"

 

"Did you just say the Queen is the head of government in England?"

 

"Yes."

 

"The Prime Minister is the head of government and the Queen is head of State"

 

"There's a difference?"

 

 

I don't remember that in the book so I'm wondering if that's even more damning stuff that came out over the past few years.

 

I stand corrected: the movie was compelling and dare I say, excellent. 

 

 

Agreed on Woody Harrelson. He was, in my mind, the clear standout in the cast. His bursts of rage were a thing of beauty. "Let my certainty supersede her certainty! GOD DAMN IT!" 

 

I also loved McCain quoting Mao Zedong: "It's always darkest before it's completely black." 

Andrew Sullivan, spot on, as always when it comes to Sarah Palin:

 

 

 

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/03/the-story-of-sarah-palin.html

Sarah Palin is a stupid cunt. That's all there is to say.

I enjoyed the movie, even though some moments were incredibly cheesy (constant cutaways to the McCain team exclaiming "She's INCREDIBLE!" during her convention speech). I think Palin's journey is a fascinating one and the movie does make her look somewhat sympathetic. She was chosen to be a tool and was used for her appearance, both as a woman and as a "maverick" in order to "shake up the campaign." And it worked, until people started realizing that she just wasn't ready for the national stage. You could look at her not knowing things as "being stupid" and attacks on Palin's character, but it's just the truth. I think it forces us to sympathize with her somewhat because she comes across as someone who is way in over her head and decides to handle it the best she can, the way she has before. There's that moment where she's worried about the debate and her husband tells her she'll be fine just like she was in Alaska because when she looks out into the crowd and speaks, people don't actually care about what she says, it's all about how she says it. I think that really resonates. From that point forward, she sticks to the truth as she knows it...and she simultaneously realizes that she's the main driving force behind the McCain campaign, so she grows to be out of control and doesn't shy away from saying and doing whatever the hell she wants.

I almost wished the movie had spent a little time in the aftermath of the campaign, dealing with what Palin became. I know that's not in the book, but it would seem to add to the overall story; she believed in herself so strongly that she ventured out on a non-campaign campaign. It was if she was running for Sarah Palin. She was running for celebrity status. That's what's really fascinating to me. She had a choice to be involved with politics (twice, if you consider her choice to stop running Alaska and her decision not to run for the GOP nomination). She chose to be a celebrity instead, but one that's more on the outskirts of politics than an insider, and one that constantly reminds her audience that she's an outsider. All that reminding just leads to the obvious; she can't run as a political outsider for too long because eventually people are going to realize how vacant that all is. She's an empty suit.

I saw this mentioned somewhere else on the net earlier today and while I realize this is a 'somewhat' fictional movie, based on that depiction, it seems like it might be a valid diagnosis for Palin.

 

 

 

That description applies to 90% of people on the Internet.

man, you really need to hang around a different part of the internet if you think it's that high..... I'd say it's more like 85%

 

(typed confidently from my hidden GlenBeck Doomsday bunker)