I just watched the HBO film "Game Change" again...

[CTyankee]

It was fun to re-live that movie in light of all that has transpired since then and I was struck by how incredibly good it was. The acting was superb. Julianne Moore was superb as Palin. Seeing it from a distance of years the McCain campaign looks like the beginning of the end for the Republican Party.

Watch it again if you get a chance. It is a warning of things to come for the GOP and indeed, things haven't gotten any better. The scene where McCain first begins to see the racist, know-nothing, hate filled people at the core of the GOP, you realize he is awakened to something disgusting and crazy at the same time going on with a political base he thought he knew better.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. That movie was very well-done.

I hope somebody makes one about the Trump campaign someday.

[CTyankee]

3. that one is begging to be made! So who would play Trump?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Alec Baldwin. He's become kind of puffy-looking lately.

[CTyankee]

7. Oh god, I can see him in orange hair now...

[jberryhill]

8. Trump

Playing Donald Trump is one thing at which he excels.

[Freddie]

2. Awesome film

Superb acting by Julianne Moore as Palin and Ed Harris as McCain. You almost feel sorry for him by the end. The film simply lays out the facts without a partisan bias, what actually happened was more than enough to make the party look bad.

[CTyankee]

5. My husband was watching it and when I started to watch it took me a few minutes

to realize I wasn't seeing Tina Fey...then I saw the part where Moore as Palin was watching Tina playing Palin...a little cognitive dissonance...

I think Moore made Palin more human than I believe she actually is. But that's me...

[bettyellen]

9. she really caught that kind of anger you see when arrogant and ignorant people are unmasked....

and their bullshit has worn thin. She didn't realize I guess that even Republican leaders and strategists are really good at that campaign shit. She didn't want to believe she needed to learn anything. YIKES!

[CTyankee]

11. I like the way she goes catatonic on her advisers...after abusing Nicolle Wallace

verbally in the nastiest way and having fits. I thought "geez, I'd be on my way long before it got this bad...no job is worth this abuse and mental torment." Then I remembered that we're dealing with republicans and they've been inside the asylum for so long they don't realize everyone is insane there..

[bettyellen]

13. I'm sure it was a shock to her to see women who actually do the work, instead of flirting and

reciting little jingles, like she did. It just didn't occur to her that she couldn't wing it, LOL.

[brewens]

4. It hasn't been that long since I saw it but I'll watch it again. I have my own copy.

I love Julianne Moore and she was one reason why I watched it. There has been nothing during or since that campain that made me think the way Palin was portrayed wasn't spot on.

I know one guy that loves Palin and is a huge gun nut. He went absoluely insane over her Sarah Palin's Alaska hunting trip! They actually show someone else packing and loading her gun for her! And she ruins a pair of shoes crossing a creek!

WTF? How hard would it be to realize how phony all of that would make her look? How hard would it be to fake it and make it look good? Someone on hand had to realize all of that. It 100% backs up everything I ever saw or read about how difficult she is to work with.

I believed Levi when he said she mostly would sit around watching wedding shows.

[bettyellen]

10. "I believed Levi when he said she mostly would sit around watching wedding shows." That kind of

matches what some described as her college semester(s) in Hawaii. Spent it mooning over and stalking Magnum PI.
What a fucking rube.

[brewens]

12. What went on with that "Alaska" episode also demonstrates probably how no one dares even tell her

anything. Even with Todd right there having to know what it was going to look like.

She was probably pretty cute in college but imagine her thinking she would get Selleck's attention back then? Like she's going to blow him away with all the women in Hawaii he could have had back then! Not a chance!

[bettyellen]

15. I have known one or two sociopathic people (not all women) to fixate on people with money and

some fame, and develop these fantastic plans to meet and win them as a means to an easy and glamorous life.
My nutty cousin used to try to do this by proxy for me all the time when I was a young hot thing, but I didn't want to chase famous men twice my age, LOL.
She herself fixated on the founder of a company she was moving 2K miles to work at. I am pretty sure he is the main reason she took the job (although they had never met- he was in the news a lot back then) and she had very detailed fantasies about being his wife and ruling Knoxville's society pages.
It was then I realized that she was a sociopath- desperately wanting to marry a man she had never met for personal gain.
And if you have spent any time around sociopaths, you do learn you cannot correct them- not one bit. It does't go well, ever.
My cousin used to "joke" about killing people who disagreed with her too- just for disagreeing with her, she became unhinged.

[brewens]

16. Wasn't that the book on Monica Lewinski too? Clinton was stupid but he had a target on his back as

well.

As long as I brought Clinton up. I always thought both Paula Jones and Clinton were lying. I think Paula did whatever he asked for, then was pissed off that it was all that was going to amount to.

[bettyellen]

18. Similar, but I would say it was more due to unexpected opportunity than plotting...

sadly, our young women are raised on these male savior fantasies (thanks Walt Disney!!) so wealthy, powerful and charismatic people are going to be damned interesting when you cross paths. (which the increase of interns because of the govt shut down contributed to)
I think the part that was sociopathic with my cousin was the long range plotting and plans to stalk till marriage. There were many many other things that she did (vicious lying, threatening, trying to control people) that gave her up as a sociopath, it was just another way that showed how people were just objects to her. She would recast herself as a different person each time to win the prize she had in mind. In fact, she reveled in the devious aspects, getting over on people. Quite scary when you put it all together.
I get the feeling Monica just had a basic romantic fantasy about the whole thing. And didn;t that Linda Tripp encourage her in the whole thing?

[brewens]

19. Tripp was in on it. I thought I'd read some background on Monica about her going after some older

professor back home that made it sound like a pattern. Once a few years before and then what she encountered with Clinton wouldn't necessarily qualify her as the type of serial stalker you describe.

[bettyellen]

20. Yeah well, to me chasing married men and those in power above you is crossing a line. You're

encouraging them to destroy relationships and also endanger their career. But society looks the other way so frequently, that might not have even been a consideration. And there are degrees to everything.
She was young and got encouragement from a trusted friend (Tripp) that was using her to whip up some excitement and scandal from what I have pieced together. From what I recall, Tripp encouraged her flirting, and then condemned the whole scenario. Not what friends do.

[CTyankee]

22. I have always felt that Clinton was far more at fault than Monica....

he was at that time the most powerful man in the world. He could have simply had her barred from the White House and he chose to see her. I loved Clinton and voted for him twice but on this one he was seriously at fault.

[bettyellen]

23. Oh yes, from a relationship standpoint, but politically I don't give a rats ass. It's for him and

Hillary to work out. Lots of wives look the other way, and I can't judge that.

My juicy gossip guess would be that there were dozens or more for old Bill. Which probably means he was pretty nice to them, or he would have been ousted earlier and more often. (this is also my theory about Jodi Foster, and anyone else who manages to have discreet affairs for 20+ years.)
Both people I know that meant him said he was incredibly magnetic, made you feel like you were the only person in the room. They would have jumped his bones too, and were surprised to learn that!

[CTyankee]

24. But it wasn't just an ordinary relationship. He was the President and there were real

enemies out there dead earnest on getting him impeached and hounded from office. This was serious stuff for our country. The republicans were trying to undo an election. For him not to think of the ramifications of his actions was a deadly serious issue for the entire country. He owed it to the people who voted for him not to endanger a largely successful presidency.

I don't judge the Clintons on the issue of sexual matters with their own private relationship either. But this far transcended that. And he was the one with the power, not Monica, who had control of that.

[bettyellen]

25. If I'm not mistaken, it was more the coverup than the lie about Monica. See, I think most people

wouldn't want anyone prosecuted and the whole thing was bullshit. Republicans didn't care except what they could do to harm a Dem. It's always some trumped up scandal with the Republicans.
I hope the next time this happens, whoever it is directed to can say it's none of your business instead of denying it. Which is what Clinton should have said too. I guess what I mean to say, is it should not be serious stuff for our country.

[CTyankee]

27. But it was a "gotcha" set up. He was lying under oath and it was why the House

Judiciary Committee proceeded with its pursuit of getting Clinton impeached. IIRC it passed in the House but failed by one vote in the Senate...

[bettyellen]

30. certainly a set up. and he was a fool to mess with a very young intern.

[Gothmog]

14. That was a good film

[longship]

17. And Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt.

That flick is yet another exemplar of HBO's excellence in their independant productions.

Also, check out:

Temple Grandin, a biopic about the noted autism advocate and college professor. Claire Danes is incredible in her role as Grandin. Even Grandin has said so. Highly recommended. And do resee it with Grandin's commentary. Directed by Mick Jackson, always good value.

Too Big to Fail. A stellar cast lays out the 2008 financial meltdown. Too many good actors to name them all. William Hurt as Hank Paulson, Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke(!!), Ed Asner as Warren Buffet (!!), James Woods (chillingly and appropriately) as Dick Fuld, and a great supporting cast. Told from the perspective of Paulson, who basically fucked up just about everything.

Happy to R&K this thread, because "Game Change" is yet another great flick from HBO. A great cast!

[Vinca]

21. That was a really good movie and Julianne Moore WAS Palin.

I can't wait to read the book that ensues after this election is over. Who'll play Trump??

[edhopper]

26. and relevant

since trump thinks Palin should be in his administration.

[kairos12]

28. I will never admit to a bagger, but watching that movie there was a part of me that felt a tiny bit

bad for Palin. For a nanosecond.

[CTyankee]

29. It seems that she was also a pawn in the republicans cynical use of her to gain power.

She was treated badly but you couldn't help feeling sorry for her distress. She was and is just pathetic, really.

[wheniwasincongress]

31. Great film

but their portrayal of Nicole Wallace was way off. Game Change Nicole was not shrill or annoying, like the Real Nicole.

[CTyankee]

32. nicolle really needs to take voice modulation exercises to keep her voice from

getting that shrill. And I hate to say that because it plays into a stereotype of "shrill women". There are shrill men, too, and they need voice modulation therapies as well.