Patch was weaned on political thrillers. From Broderick Crawford in All The King's Men (1949), to the eerily creepy Angela Lansbury in Manchurian Candidate (1962), to Redford and Hoffman's depiction of Woodward and Bernstein in All The President's Men (1976), deftly handled stories on the back-stories and intrigues of American politics kept us in our seat.
And Saturday it was Game Change -- HBO's attempt to capture Sarah Palin's 2008 bid for the vice presidency.
Move aside, Angela.
We're not into movie stars or actors even though we know it's hard to step inside someones skin and portray them as vividly as Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, and Woody Harrelson did for Palin, John McCain and McCain campaign puppet master Steve Schmidt in Game Change.
Frankly, we are rooted in real-world politics and have a hard time allowing ourselves to be "transported" to any make-believe land, though at times Sunday we thought Julianne Moore was Sarah Palin.
The performances, pacing, and story-telling were grand, and we found ourselves smiling when suspicions we'd held about the real-life Palin campaign were borne out in the movie.
Still, Game Change was not an ESPN documentary, seen through the unblinking eye of a hand-held camera, and we couldn't help but wonder how close a view of reality HBO was giving us. Even though many of Schmidt's team apparently contributed to the dialogue and we certainly remembered the "I can see Russia from my house" faux pax and other moments in Palin History that Game Change depicts, how close to the GOP's 2008 run did it come?
The McCain/Palin camps are not happy with the effort, a reaction you could see coming even if you did live on the other side of the Bering Sea, but for the most part the film appears to be getting rave reviews.
For us, it was all about the momentum Palin provided a political campaign during its bid for the highest office in our land, an effort that included plucking an untested, straight-talking mother of five from the wilds of Wasilla, turning her into a prime-time political player, and then standing back in shock and horror as her lack of knowledge about the world outside of her small town in Alaska brought her down like a shotgunned Mallard.
Also of interest to us at least was why Palin was picked to run with McCain in the first place, with Game Change leading us to believe that it was simpy because she was a woman, conservative, attractive and from Alaska.
How about you, PatchPoliticos? We know from past comments you're keenly interested in politics local and national. Did any of you catch Game Change? Think it was fair? Meant to entertain only? A hit piece?
Of course, as the 2008 campaign wore on, it became clear how ill-prepared she was for the job of being a 70-something's hearbeat away from the presidency, and I gave my support to Obama/Biden. Whether or not you are a fan of Palin's what I think the movie highlighted - and is crystal clear from her actions over the last four years - is that she never understood that she needed to (1) "study up" on domestic policies and international affairs if she wanted to be taken seriously, politically, and (2) ingratiate herself with the GOP leadership, to realize her ambition for higher levels of service, on the national stage. I want to see more women in positions of political power, on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, due to a lack of intellectual curiosity and/or an unwillingness to put in the time, women like Sarah Palin haven't moved the cause forward. Honestly, I wish it were otherwise.
It's a miracle we get any truth these days. One way to get truth - always get both sides of the story. Even then, it's difficult, if one side is telling the truth, while the other side is lying, creating an uneven playing field. However, without both sides, it's impossible to get to the truth, which makes it impossible to change things for the better going forward, for all solutions are based on truth and transparency. Problem: It takes more time and effort to flesh out the truth. Our culture is less and less willing to devote that time, unfortunately.
Let's see....I'll do my best here...It's late and I'm running this off the top of my head so don't get your hopes too high....... Well, Ms. Palin's definitely as pretty as a model, but you may find that she's a thumping bore. Or worse. She might just march you over to the zoo and feed you to the yak. From time to time, she gives me the mean reds. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. ...Robin...Hopefully, this effort wasn't too shameful. Sometimes, I can miss the mark. But, in my defense, I do always give women the most fabulous earrings possible and I think that tells them everything they need to know. Wouldn't you agree?