Much is being made of the HBO movie Game Change, a film about Sarah Palin, John McCain and the 2008 presidential campaign. It has been well received by everyone who didn’t vote for the McCain-Palin–or was it the Palin-McCain?–ticket.
That’s because it’s about recent, compellingly controversial history and features effective performances by Julianne Moore as Palin and Ed Harris as McCain. Best of show, however, is Woody Harrelson as key campaign strategist Steve Schmidt. Harrelson played a blood-and-guts person, one monumentally conflicted and increasingly uncomfortable with a Faustian reality. Moore and Harris played spot-on, makeup-and-mimicry caricatures.
Palin and McCain declined to be interviewed for the film, but McCain went on Fox News after the fact to comment. He didn’t say much, but it still spoke volumes.
“I admire and respect her,” he said of Palin. “I’m proud of our campaign and humbled by the fact that I was able to give her (the vice presidential nomination).”
This is beyond polite protocol. Obviously McCain still can’t level with the American people and admit to “Ambition First” as his ’08 campaign mantra. Were he to wax candid over that candidacy, he would have said:
“Let me be honest here, because that’s what a political maverick–heh, heh–should be. I was losing and the economy was starting to tank–and I had already noted publicly that economics ‘wasn’t exactly my strong suite.’ Yeah, I still wince at that winner. And, no, I still haven’t mastered the Teleprompter.
“Anyway, I knew damn well that if I wanted a shot to realize my, by now blind, ambition– after waiting out those ‘W’ years–I would need something dramatic. Way beyond a Charlie Crist endorsement. A real ‘game-changer,’ if you will. ‘Country First’? You kidding me? ‘McCain First.’ It was now or never–and never was an odds-on favorite.
“So, I agreed to roll the dice and put an un-vetted, ill-informed, under-educated populist diva on the ticket. Maybe, we shamelessly hoped, we could attract a lot of women still smoldering at Hillary Clinton’s primary loss to Obama. At least the ones who wouldn’t be insulted by this pandering long shot. And maybe, just maybe, Palin could energize a Republican base that wanted more than Vietnam POW reminders from a ticket. Maybe a mom with a special needs child who was good on camera and could deliver bumper-sticker lines would work. Why not? I was going to lose anyway.”
As for Schmidt, who did consult on the project, he has described Game Change as “very accurate.” He said (on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”) this week that the campaign went with Palin because “we were fueled by ambition to win” and “we wanted her to perform”–her blatant lack of qualifications notwithstanding. Even as a running mate for a 72-year-old with a history of cancer. Schmidt acknowledged that the prospect of a Palin presidency, indeed, “frightens” him.
“Politically, she was a net positive to the campaign,” said Schmidt. “I think a net negative in the sense that someone was nominated to the vice presidency who was manifestly unprepared to take the oath of office should it become necessary.”
Oh.
Here’s the bottom line. We’ve known about the “selling” of the presidency since Joe McGinniss’ seminal work on Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign. Yes, we market and package the candidate commodity and stage manage the world of political theater.
But it’s beyond troubling to be reminded that the first criterion for a candidate on a ticket for the U.S. presidency was not, well, basic competence. Shouldn’t that be a given? And then you look for ticket balancing, charisma quotients and the rest. Joe Biden, to be sure, is qualified to be president.
That Sarah Palin was chosen as the vice presidential candidate reflects unpatriotically on McCain and the professional, amoral numbers crunchers, including Schmidt, he surrounded himself with. Granted, what’s in the best interest of America can be often obscured in the daily grind of logistics, fund-raising and polling in pursuit of the ultimate prize. That’s why competence must be the first consideration. That’s why “America First” must be more than a hypocritical slogan.