Don’t bother with Game Change, the real Sarah Palin is much more engaging

By Gary P Jackson

Many of Sarah Palin’s top aides, past and present, are speaking out about HBO’s attempt to smear her with this piece of garbage called Game Change. Like most, I’ve only seen the movie trailers, but that’s really all you need to see to understand what you got here.

The timing for the release of this thing makes it obvious what the intention was when money was thrown at the production. The producers of this steaming pile though Sarah Palin was going to run for president, and their fantasy/hit piece creation would have maximum effect.

Unfortunately for these weasels, The Undefeated will debut on March 11, the day after Game Change on Reelz, which reaches 62 million homes. HBO only reaches and estimated 28 million.

From the Associate Press:

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Current and former aides to Sarah Palin lashed out Wednesday at HBO’s “Game Change,” describing the upcoming film’s depictions of her on the 2008 campaign trail as “sick” and inaccurate.

 

None of the aides said they have yet seen the movie, which debuts March 10, and some said they had asked for an opportunity to screen the film but had been denied.

 

Trailers for the film, which is based on the bestselling book chronicling the 2008 presidential race, have been released, however, and some snippets appear to cast Palin in an unfavorable light. As portrayed by Julianne Moore, Palin is seen complaining about how she’s being handled by political advisers and mumbling about missing her baby, who was born in April 2008. In one snippet, campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, portrayed by Woody Harrelson, describes her as being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

 

Aides said none of that jibes with their own experiences with the former Alaska governor, and they defended her vigorously Wednesday.

Jason Recher, who handled vice presidential road operations for the McCain-Palin campaign, called Palin “one of the most engaged public servants I’d ever observed.” Tom Van Flein, her former personal attorney, called her diligent, sharp and enthusiastic about the campaign.

 

Meg Stapleton, a former spokeswoman, said that she, unlike some of the others who worked with Palin during the campaign, had not been contacted by anyone associated with either the book or movie.

 

“They don’t want to hear anything good,” she said, her voice full of passion. “We all know Palin sells and the dramatization of Palin sells even more. This is sick.“

“They mock Gov. Palin, you mock Gov. Palin, as weak and unable to cope and press forward,” she told reporters on the conference call. “And the movie and the trailer … say that. And yet look with your own eyes at what she and her family have endured and inspired over the last few years. Any lesser man would have hanged himself by now. So who’s weak?“

 

Recher noted that Palin wasn’t the primary focus of the book, and he said he told screenwriter and co-executive producer Danny Strong that the book “absolutely, unequivocally” did not accurately reflect his time with the McCain campaign.

More from the Washington Post:

Palin adviser Tim Crawford last week told The Fix that the movie “Game Change,” which is based on a book of the same name, is “fiction.”

 

In a conference call Wednesday, several former Palin advisers agreed.

“If the book was very misleading, the movie’s going to be far worse,” said Palin adviser Randy Scheunemann. “It gives fiction a bad name to call this fiction.”

The Palin aides repeatedly criticized the authors of the popular book, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, for writing about Palin when they weren’t physically there covering the things that were reported in the book.

 

“It’s a false narrative cobbled together by a group of people who simply weren’t there,” said Palin aide Jason Recher.

 

“There’s only one person qualified to tell that story, and it’s her,” said another, Doug McMarlin.

 

But Stapleton gave the most impassioned defense, accusing the media of an “insatiable desire to beat and beat and beat” Palin.

Stapleton also accused Steve Schmidt, a top adviser for the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008, of exacting revenge on Palin.

 

“Schmidt is infamous for lining up and destroy,” Stapleton said. “He is abusive, he is abrasive, and he is nothing short of a world-class bully.”

 

Scheunemann added: “I think it’s pretty clear that he’s at the heart of this.”

“Looking at the trailers alone gets my blood boiling,” Stapleton said, referring to a clip from the trailer of Palin’s character lying on the floor of a bathroom in the fetal position.

I don’t know Sarah Palin personally, but I have followed her career since the earliest days of her governorship, over a year before she was asked to join the McCain campaign. All I can say is the portrayal of Sarah Palin that I have seen from the Game Change trailers doesn’t even come close to being accurate.

Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace totally screwed John McCain’s campaign. They are both incompetent and disloyal. It’s been their mission to blame their failures on Sarah from the get go.

Both started sabotaging the McCain/Palin campaign, well before the voters went to the polls, laying the ground work for their despicable acts.

If you want an accurate account of the McCain campaign, go read Sarah’s book Going Rogue or tune into Reelz on March 11, and watch The Undefeated. You’ll be treated to accounts from people who were there from the start and have worked closely with Sarah Palin as she transformed Alaska, and sought to bring a little common sense to our nation’s capitol.