Yeah, “Vice-President to a very old man in poor health” is not exactly something to cram for at the last minute, and the voters seemed to know that intuitively.
That’s what I find most embarrassing. They basically said: "Yeah Palin, you don’t actually have to know what any of this crap means. Just memorize these lines and throw in a couple of “Go USA, USA…” and you’ll be fine.
And the fact that she’s OK with this is even more disturbing.
I mean FFS!
shrug Voters don’t care about foreign policy experience. That’s why most recent Presidents have been governors rather than congresscritters or cabinet officials.
If you put aside the politics, the movie was basically a “be careful what you wish for” story about people with good intentions (at least for their campaign) unleashing a force they can’t control. Given the celebrity of Sarah Palin, it’s nearly impossible to avoid evaluating the film without injecting some bias (for or against) regarding its subject. However, I think that, if I had no idea who the principal characters were in real life (or if, e.g. this movie was made 100 years from now), the movie would still be pretty good as a study of character types and their relationship to political power.
Loved the movie, my favorite part:
The look of silent panic on Palin’s female aide’s face when they meet for the first time in the hotel room (when she is the 7/8th person in the world to know she was the pick). She has absolutely no idea who Sarah is, but is assuming that she should know this person, since she is going to be the VP nominee and the aide is not a newbie in Republican power circles.
“Of course!”, her first words when Sarah finally introduces herself.
Maybe I was a little too nice. FTR, I’m not a fan of Palin but was expecting something much, much worse than what was shown.
I was pretty amazed that the McCain campaign was actually concerned about Palin’s mental stability, to the point of having a neighbor doctor observe her and given an unofficial diagnosis. I’m fully prepared to believe that the latter is just artistic license (but maybe not!), but I also believe that they really were concerned about her mental state. I did not expect that.
I actually didn’t like Moore’s performance as Palin. She seemed too lackadaisical most of the time, and too scripted the rest of the time. Ed Harris did a fine job as McCain, but come on, he’s Ed Harris – he probably could have done a pretty good job as Sarah Palin herself. I thought the best performance was Woody Harrellson – I especially liked when he first found out in person that Palin was just totally clueless. His eyes bugged out a little bit – just a great bit of acting, I thought. Also, I think the actress who played Palin’s coach did a fine job, although I rolled my eyes when she said she didn’t vote.
I’d offer comment on the movie, but come on, I’m a liberal. Of course I loved it.
I was really intrigued by this behind the scenes look into the campaign. And it made me feel for all the parties involved.
Both Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace were on MSNBC this evening, and both confirmed the accuracy of the movie. McCain himself made a statement that indicated, to me at least, that he didn’t claim the movie was inaccurate - just unpleasant. And Wallace confirmed that, indeed, she could not bring herself to vote for McCain for President.
Funny, that seems like an apt description of Palin herself.
I haven’t seen the movie yet–hoping to watch it tonight.
There ya go – maybe Moore’s performance was BRILLIANT!
Looking forward to seeing this. Have to wait for the DVD.
She really is one of the greatest actors alive, and chooses scripts very carefully, so I have no doubt that she is creating the character she intended - one with an odd mixture of carefully rehearsed political operative and off-the-rails psycho.
I could see criticizing the movie for portraying Palin in a negative light, wrt the mental instability. But then I sort of stepped back and thought about what they were dealing with. They had this controversial first-term governor who had very little experience in the political arena, she’s already been fielding accusations of abuse of power and all manner of ethics violations (because she can’t get her head out of the Wacilla, AK cocoon), she just had a special needs baby, has one child headed off to Iraq and another who is a teenager pregnant out of wedlock. And they were surprised she couldn’t really hold up under all that strain. “Uh… I think she’s having a breakdown…” Yeah, no shit, Sherlock! Who wouldn’t crumble under that kind of pressure? I would… but then again, if I had all that on my plate, I doubt I’d be creating more chaos for myself by going on a national-level campaign for the Vice Presidency.
So I thought the portrayal as an ambitious twit was dead on. And the guys, as usual, were clueless. There were several comments that male characters made that made me roll my eyes. The hegemony and the patriarchy to which they are so accustomed, I think is what clouded their judgment in recruiting her in the first place. I enjoyed that movie because I always wanted some insight as to why they thought this nitwit would be a good pick and now I see how that happened, plus or minus a few Hollywood details.
Well, I think the bottom line is she was chosen by the campaign people. We know she was not McCain’s first choice (or second, or…?). The campaign goons (on either side) don’t care what happens after Election Day. They get paid, they go on vacation, they goof off until the next campaign cycle. All they have to do is get their guy across the finish line first. So they picked her because she was an attractive woman, considerably younger than McCain, a tough-talking hockey mom who goes hunting and fishing and who worked her way up, who has a cute husband and five GORGEOUS kids, and who claims to have a strong religious faith. Can’t lose, right? I mean yeah, I can see it on paper. And she’s all excited and proud to be chosen and says she wants to help out the ticket and the party, and she seems to be very confident that she can handle the sudden fame and the scrutiny. She’s gonna come back a star, you betcha!
And they were running out of time to come up with a running mate and there wasn’t really time to do a very thorough vetting and they didn’t have anyone else they really felt comfortable going with even if there had been time. They already knew they didn’t like the other guys much. And anyway, who cares that much about who the VP is? All the research says that it doesn’t really affect how people vote anyway, right…?
I thought it piled on too much. It may have been true, but it’s a movie, and I consider any part of it not confirmed through impartial sources to be suspect. There’s enough to criticize Sarah Palin about without having to make her look unbalanced. This is a story about an incompentent campaign and how it picked an incompetent, dishonest, and mean spirited candidate for Vice President. It would have been just as effective without the more personal, and questionable, characterizations.
It’s the last that makes it interesting. Two of the main characters, Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, have attested to the accuracy of the story. Coupled that with the fact that it doesn’t make either of them look particularly good (like, wasn’t vetting the candidates your job?). Then add McCain not actually saying that it was inaccurate or specifically denying the story. The only one who is denying everything is the one who historically shown to have the least credibility.
The story of picking Sarah Palin is the story of a huge fuck-up and how that happened. The best thing that could happen to the Republican Party is for Sarah Palin to join the Libertarian Party.
Moore looked EXACTLY like Sarah Palin. In fact, I would probably say Sarah Palin looks EXACTLY like Moore at this point.
I don’t think it made SP seem completely negative. They really amplified the fact that she was very close to her family.
See, I actually disagree. Don’t get me wrong, Moore did an amazing job morphing, but- IMHO- dead on compared, Palin is prettier (when Moore is done up as Palin and not just herself). What kept distracting me throughout the movie was how damned thin Moore’s nose was-- Hollywood super surgeried thin. Her nose is thin and perfectly straight, something Sarah’s is not at all (not that Sarah has a bad nose or anything- in fact, Sarah’s slightly imperfect nose is MUCH more attractive to me than Moore’s nose).
As to the movie itself, I have to agree with those that said it stirred some sympathy for Palin in their dark, dark souls ;):p. Let me preface this by saying: ultimately, there is no excuse for Palin-- if she was in over her head, she should have accepted that and not put our entire nation in the line of potential danger. That said, there is no worse feeling in the world than realizing you aren’t as smart as you think you are— and being treated like you’re a 4th grader would frustrate the fuck out of anyone. I suppose felt a little empathy for her there.
I also totally agree that Schmidt is the one who comes out as the villain here, not Palin. Palin was an understandably emotionally unstable person (for all the reasons listed previously: the baby, the pregnant daughter, the son going to war) that was thrust in the middle of something she should have never been chosen for. Schmidt is the one who didn’t do his job and then pays the price for it.
As far as the book Game Change, do any of you think it’s worth a read? I know it has sections on the Clintons and the Edwards- are those as juicy as the Palin chapters?
I’m listening to it on CD right now. The bits on Edwards are pretty juicy - among other things his wife is revealed to be not nearly as saintly as she was portrayed in the media. Also surprised at just how deluded Edwards was - he still thought he could wiggle his way into a cabinet post even after news of his affair broke.
But the Clinton/Obama battle actually takes up most of the book, and the McCain campaign isn’t even mentioned until well past the halfway point. Anyway, it does paint a pretty interesting picture of what happened in the Clinton camp. Some of the more gossipy bits touch on the Clintons’ animosity toward Obama. Bill, especially, unloaded on pretty anyone willing to listen, even George W. Bush, on how much of an asshole he thought Obama was.
Hmmm . . .me gusta. I think I may be picking that up for my Kindle. I mean, unless someone comes in and tells me it’s an abomination of writing or something :D.
Thank you!