Yesterday was the premiere of the HBO film Game Change about the disastrous 2008 McCain-Palin campaign. Here’s the trailer.
Not having cable, I will have to wait until it comes out on DVD but until then, here are some of Sarah Palin’s greatest hits.
Ah, good times.
I saw the film. Some “spoilers” follow, but it’s not like anyone familiar with the 2008 election doesn’t know the outcome. A quick review is that I thought it was actually pretty fair to Palin. That said, it certainly pulled no punches in demonstrating just how devastatingly ignorant she was about pretty much everything, including a humorous scene where her advisers are showing her where Germany is on a world map. But it did show her as genuinely concerned about people, especially the people of Alaska. There’s a scene where they’re trying to prep her for the Couric interview, and she’s more concerned that they’re not doing polls in Alaska even though it’s a dark red state and only 3 electoral votes. And she’s still reading local Alaskan papers when her advisers are trying to prep her for the national stage. After the Couric debacle, there’s a brilliant scene where the McCain camp decides Palin is a much better actress than politician, and start giving her scripts to memorize instead of actually trying to make her understand what she’s saying. Then of course as the campaign reaches its end, there’s the in-fighting where she starts “going rogue” and ignoring pretty much everyone in the McCain camp. McCain refuses to try to reign her in himself, saying he can’t risk having her turn against him, but that makes him come across as a pretty weak and ineffectual leader. At the end of the film she wants to give a concession speech, and everyone in the McCain camp tells her that’s not going to happen, but she won’t take no for an answer and takes the issue right to McCain himself, who very tactfully tells her no. Visually, the film looks great. It’s also wonderfully acted with great casting, and it’s not simply an attack piece on Palin but seems like a fairly accurate and fair portrayal. That doesn’t mean it makes Palin look good, but it does make her look at least a little sympathetic as an unprepared, inexperienced governor who got in way over her head.
That’s interesting to hear, because if her response to the infamous Couric supposedly-“gotcha”-but-actually-softball question had been to rattle off a list of local Alaskan papers, I think that could have played very well to those inclined to support Palin, by making her look down-homey and emphasizing that “Momma Grizzly” aspect; and while I suppose such a response still could have given ammunition to her detractors to call her provincial and unprepared for national office, I can’t imagine it would be nearly the disaster for her that the non-answer was. “Palin mostly reads Alaskan papers” is not nearly as juicy as “Palin can’t name a single newspaper she reads”.
Anyway, sounds neat, might have to consider checking out this movie.