I watched the HBO movie Game Change last night. Oh. My. God.
I guess there are two ways to approach an effort like this — as a movie and as an alleged reflection of reality. As a movie, I found it quite well-made and entertaining. I usually don't find myself absorbed into performances where someone imitates a known person. When an actor plays Elvis, I sit there noting all the ways and moments when he doesn't look like Elvis, doesn't sound like Elvis, doesn't move like Elvis, etc. That's kind of how it was for me in this with Ed Harris playing John McCain but largely remaining Ed Harris.
But Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin? Bought every second of it. And of course I had no problem with Woody Harrelson and all the other folks playing "handlers" who had to deal with their frustrations and horror of what their Frankenstein Monster was becoming and how she was sinking the ticket. The moment Sarah Paulson (playing campaign advisor Nicole Wallace) admits she couldn't vote for the lady she tried to get elected is one of the most powerful statements I've seen about American politics.
So good job as a movie. And praise for screenwriter Danny Strong and director Jay Roach.
As a record of what really happened? I dunno. Ms. Wallace said in an interview, "Game Change is not a movie about Sarah Palin. And it's definitely not about staffers like me. It's a film about the vast, murky gray area in which the majority of politics takes place." No, I think it's about Palin and about staffers like her…about what Palin really was, as opposed to the image that her coaches tried and only sometimes succeeded in establishing for her. Many of those staffers, Wallace included, are now saying the film is a striking mirror of reality and I can understand why someone would say that. It's another way of proclaiming, "Hey, don't blame us for losing that election. Look at what we had to work with!" And of course, we can all understand why Ms. Palin and those who support her would insist it's lies, fiction, a false narrative, etc.
A project like this kind of demands that the viewer have some opinion as to how accurate it is. Here's mine and you have to remember that I think Semi-Governor Palin was unqualified, not because of her limited experience but just because of who she was and how ill-informed she has always been. I further believe that her mission in life is not the dangerous political agenda she spouts but the personal glory and financial gain of Sarah Palin, and that she's found that firing up her base is a great way to further that agenda. So she fires them up with nonsense, distortions, outright fibs and playing the victim card every time someone disagrees with her or she doesn't get what she wants. And she avoids any situation where a journalist might ask her a question with an intent other than to let her deliver a prepared answer.
So you could say I have a low opinion of the lady. And despite that, as I watched Game Change, I kind of felt sorry for her.
I know I shouldn't. As she goes around this country telling people that Barack Obama is a Socialist who's destroying America, I don't even think she doesn't deserve a lot of the insults hurled at her. People in glass houses, after all. But still, the depiction of her bothered me. I'd really like to think it's exaggerated; that no one that clueless could have gotten that close to such a high office.
Then again, during the campaign the real John McCain struck me as pretty confused and disingenuous (much more so than the way he's played by Harris in the film) and he got even closer to the presidency. The film felt to me like its makers, aware they'd be slammed for the way they depicted Palin, decided they might look fairer if they made McCain look heroic and wise. During that election, one of the reasons Senator McCain did not win was that he did not look heroic or wise. Here's a clip of one of many moments when he did not…
The John McCain we see there is everything Game Change makes Sarah Palin out to be. He's attacking an alleged aspect of the Obama health care proposal…but he obviously didn't read it or listen to anyone who did. Perhaps someone heard a talking point on Fox News and didn't bother to check the actual plan to see how Obama might answer McCain. The first thing I learned in debate class was that you never ask your opponent a question unless you have a good idea how he'll respond. What the hell happened here?
Game Change makes Palin out to be foolish and arrogant at times for refusing to study for public appearances. Why are they faulting her when McCain's out there making mistakes like this, throwing an accusation at Obama that Obama could so easily hit out of the park? And of course, Obama was sharp enough to mention that he'd explained this at a previous debate, thereby making the point that McCain wasn't paying attention or his memory was going…or something.
I don't accept the implied premise of Game Change that the Palin half of the McCain-Palin combo sank the ticket by coming across addled; not when the guy on top was making people wonder if he was just plain too old or confused to be Chief Exec. In the movie, Ed Harris comes across as strong and principled and in total grasp of the situation…and he has that leading man quality that makes you feel like he's ready to go be an astronaut. Can you recall McCain ever coming off like that during the campaign? Watch that debate clip again. Palin didn't do well in her one-on-one with Biden but McCain did more damage in his debates, if only because his mattered more.
So I feel bad for her that she's getting blamed for the loss. Even if she really is/was the uninformed narcissist that the HBO movie makes her out to be, she doesn't deserve all or even most of the blame for McCain losing. I'd say George W. Bush and Dick Cheney probably deserve more…and McCain certainly does. Bush and Cheney did what they did to this country — and McCain's the one who didn't really try to tell America that if they elected him, there'd be any kind of real Game Change.