US Presidential Elections: Game Change shows that Sarah Palin changed the Republican Party

 The HBO movie “Game Change” was surprising on many levels:

• It was faithful to the book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
• Julianne Moore was outstanding as Sarah Palin, giving a respectful performance without an ounce of parody.
• Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt, the master mind behind John McCain’s campaign, like Ms. Moore deserves an Emmy.
• Sarah Palin comes across as a sympathetic character, someone plucked out of relative obscurity and thrust into the national spotlight without a real support system.

Yes, Governor Palin is extremely confident and of her abilities, bordering often on arrogance, but she sincerely believed her selection as McCain’s running mate was “God’s plan,” as she puts it. Plus McCain's team acted like she was a Godsend, delivered to them to save the floundering and foundering McCain campaign.

For more: Game Change shows that Sarah Palin changed the Republican Party | Washington Times Communities

Could Sarah Palin become a true "Game Changer" for the Republican party ? - by RM

“Game Change,” an HBO docudrama to air this Saturday night, is told through the eyes of the advisers who developed the losing strategy for Senator John McCain of Arizona and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. In this drama Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson), the senior adviser, is the war hero, and Senator McCain (Ed Harris) comes off as a crusty old soldier who follows orders but can’t help grousing.

Why is it aired now? What is behind it? Nothing, say some. But don't be too sure.

Watching the "amateurish" and "old hat, business as usual" Republican presidential candidates battling each other in the primaries, Sarah Palin suddenly seems like the perfect "reserve", ready to come off the Republican"bench" and score a touchdown at the August Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

Yes folks, the party ain't over 'Til the Fat Lady Sings"...but in this case it is not a fat lady, but a sharp, down to earth, battle hardened politician. Believe it or not, Sarah Palin could make the difference for the Republicans in this years presidential election.

EU-Digest

USA: Gabrielle Giffords shooting reignites row over rightwing rhetoric in US - by Ewen MacAskill

The US was tonight seized by a fierce debate over whether inflammatory rightwing rhetoric was to blame for a shooting spree in Tucson, Arizona, that targeted congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and left six dead, including a nine-year-old child.

Giffords, 40, who remains in critical condition in hospital after being shot through the head but is expected to recover, criticised Sarah Palin last year for putting her and 19 other Democrats on a hitlist, each shown as being in the crosshairs.

"When people do that, they have got to realise there are consequences to that action," Giffords said. Palin today distanced herself from the shooting, as did leading figures of the Tea Party movement. Conservative bloggers accused liberals of seeking to exploit the attack.

For more: Gabrielle Giffords shooting reignites row over rightwing rhetoric in US | World news | The Guardian

American Thinker: What Europeans are Saying about Sarah Palin - by Soeren Kern

For the complete report from the American Thinker click on this link

What Europeans are Saying about Sarah Palin - by Soeren Kern

Europeans have greeted the news of Sarah Palin's nomination for Vice President of the United States with a predictable mixture of anger, frustration, resentment and resignation. After more than a year of uncritically praising Barack Obama as a supernatural figure destined by fate to solve all of the world's problems, European elites are suddenly coming to terms with the unwelcome possibility that the junior senator from Illinois might just be another human being after all. European commentary on Sarah Palin has ranged from ridicule, to ridicule, to more ridicule, to reluctant acknowledgment that Barack Obama may have met his match. In any case, many European elites are sensing that the Democratic presidential candidate, by failing to pick US Senator Hillary Clinton as his running mate, may have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Note EU-Digest: If the American electorate falls for this clever new strategy of the Republican Party to change the momentum from Obama to McCain and votes in favor of a Republican ticket, which includes a "polished Bush makeover" and an attractive but unexperienced female VP candidate, then we can also better understand America's fascination with the TV show "Dancing with the stars".

Citizen-Times.com: US Elections - McCain can win only as a war president - by Robert Scheer

For the complete report from the CITIZEN-TIMES.COM click on this link

US Elections - McCain can win only as a war president - by Robert Scheer

"Just great! Nuclear-armed Pakistan is falling apart, Iran’s nuclear program is unchecked, and congressional legislation on cooperation with the Russians on controlling nuclear proliferation is now dead in the water. Horrid news except for Sen. John McCain, who thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War, and now stands a good chance of being our next president. A very good chance, if the Russian recognition of the independence of two breakaway Georgia provinces can be elevated to the status of a major challenge to the security of the United States. It is an absurd claim: How can one justify uncritical support for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia earlier this year while denouncing a similar claim by a Georgian ethnic minority? It is also difficult to ignore that it was Georgia’s president and close McCain friend, Mikheil Saakashvili, who upset the status quo by invading first.McCain can win only as a war president. He neither knows, nor cares, much about the economic meltdown, which is the consequence of the deregulation mania that he has supported at every turn during his career in the Senate.

If McCain had to run on his economic policy record in the Senate, he might be a loser even in his home state of Arizona, whose residents are suffering mightily from economic disarray presided over by the Republicans. Better to dwell on the dubious success of the surge in Iraq than on the surge in home mortgage foreclosures and the price of gasoline that has crippled Arizona’s and the nation’s economy."

New York Magazine: US Elections - Sarah Palin Is Just Full of Surprises

For the complete report from the New York Magazine click on this link

US elections - Sarah Palin Is Just Full of Surprises

While most of America was not laboring yesterday, the Internet was struggling mightily to keep up with a flurry of revelations about Sarah Palin. First, but perhaps least politically relevant, Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, is five months pregnant, will have the child, and plans to marry the baby's daddy (who is, by the way, sex on skates). More important, Palin has announced she has hired a lawyer as part of the ongoing investigation against her firing of a state employee, who perhaps caught her ire for not firing her ex-brother-in-law. Meanwhile, Palin's reformist image is taking a hit, with reports showing that she apparently backed the epitome of pork, the Bridge to Nowhere, before she was against it, and hired a lobbying firm to reap $27 million in federal earmarks for her town of 6,700 while she was mayor. At the same time, links have been unearthed between Palin and a group that wants Alaska to secede from the union. The avalanche of disclosures has led to questions regarding the seriousness with which John McCain vetted his running mate before potentially placing her "a heartbeat away from the presidency," as the Democrats are fond of saying these days.