Some Reflections on GAME CHANGE
I personally enjoyed the movie enough to watch (most) of the replay. Seeing the cuts of the actual events played against the reported behind-the-scenes narrative from the book was absolutely spell-binding to this political junkie. I offer a few other reflections:
1. Even in '08 the Republican Party had a problem with their conservative base. The first AND ONLY reason that Palin was offered up as an alternative was to neutralize the growing dissatisfaction with the the hard-core conservative base because without it, McCain had no chance of winning. The Republican Party had a choice here and they made the wrong one...no...it wasn't choosing Palin, it was choosing to cater to the anti-intellectual, radical, racist wing of the party instead of shuffling them off into obscurity. Palin was his sacrifice to them.
2. I've heard interviews that claim that the dialogue of the behind-the-scenes conversations are 99% accurate. They may well be accurate but I'm sure they were dramatized to a large degree. So....as dramatic and compelling as they were, I still take them with the proverbial grain of salt.
3. McCain comes off looking like a saint...like a good-hearted person who first refused to "go negative"; eventually relenting; and finally pulling back because he was horrified at the ugliness that it unleashed (chants of Kill Him! Socialist! etc) That may have been true in 2008 but look where McCain is now....he's right should-to-shoulder with Mitch McConnel and the rest of the crazy-assed Repubs that would rather destroy the Country than let Obama get re-elected. If he was a patriot at one time, he has long since abandoned that position
4. Re: McCain's warning to Sarah not to let the "radicals like Limbaugh and the rest" take over the party....by the time he uttered that, (if in fact, he did?) it was already too late. He had in fact unleashed the hounds of hell that became the Tea Party and installed Sarah as the Grand Matriarch.....I think the McCain line came right out of the book and I think it was Schmidt and Wallace's attempt to absolve themselves of the havoc they imposed on the country in their desire to win at all costs..
5. And finally....you can't put toothpaste back in the tube. The Republicans had the chance in 2008 to marginalize and reject the radical wing of the party and they didn't do it. Now, they're trying to nominate a "centrist" like Mitt Romney and they are learning they can't do it....he has to jump on the clown car and out-crazy the rest of them for the nomination. I think 2008 will go down as the real watershed moment in our country's history because it was the first scratch that festered into the wound of fetid politics we suffered through in 2010 and will face again in 2012..
Just My Humble Opinion ..
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I saw the original -- and enjoyed it immensely. So why bother with the remake?
rocktivity
