Line #53 Literature/GameChange


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/game_change_1276.jpg]]
2
3	->'''Steve Schmidt:''' I'm amazed that someone who has been in politics this long takes all the petty stuff so personally.\
4	'''Rick Davis:''' And that's why they are who they are. Reagan, Bush, Clinton... All they want is to be loved. The ones that don't pathologically need to be loved, they don't get the nomination. They don't get to be president. If you'd understood that fact, you might have been able to better handle our Alaskan moose hunter. God, it was a tough campaign.\
5	'''Schmidt:''' It wasn't a campaign, it was a bad reality show.
6
7	''Game Change'' is the 2010 book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin that documents the 2008 race between UsefulNotes/BarackObama and UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain, and the events leading up to it.
8
9	It covers all the major events of the campaign, with most of the focus on the contentious Democratic primaries, in particular the fight between Obama and UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton. In addition, it offers startling and perceptive insights into the behind-the-scenes drama during the election — Obama’s attempts to remain in the race; the Clintons’ increasing ire at the media for its soft coverage of Obama; the complete destruction of Edwards’ campaign and marriage before, during and after his affair with videographer Rielle Hunter; the last-minute switch-out of Joe Lieberman with UsefulNotes/SarahPalin as the Republican vice presidential nominee; and the increasing chaos of the [=McCain=] campaign after the financial crisis, and through it all the constant interplay and threats of racism and sexism.
10
11	A TV film based on the book, primarily focusing on Sarah Palin, aired on Creator/{{HBO}} in 2012. It starred Creator/JulianneMoore as Palin, Creator/WoodyHarrelson as Steve Schmidt, and Creator/EdHarris as John [=McCain=].
12	----
13	!!The book features examples of:
14	* AwfulWeddedLife:
15	** Between John and Elizabeth Edwards, [[StepfordSmiler despite their best efforts to pretend otherwise]].
16	** Between Rudy Giuliani and his third wife, Judith.
17	** John and Cindy [=McCain=]'s wedded life isn't awful all the time, but they can get into some pretty epic fights.
18	* BattleCouple: [[UsefulNotes/BillClinton Bill]] and [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Hillary]].
19	* BerserkButton: Bill Clinton is a patient, wizardly figure in Hillary's campaign; a master of the rules of politics like no other. But during the primaries, he is repeatedly hammered by former friends and a media, which he is convinced is in the tank for Obama, for supposedly playing the race card. The final straw is when a reporter in South Carolina suggests that he is using similar tactics to Lee Atwater, George H.W. Bush's infamous 1988 campaign manager, who created the infamous [[ScaryBlackMan Willie Horton ad]]. Bill loses it at this point, forgoing his own rules and berating the reporter for a solid five minutes, leading to the famous "shame on you" incident.
20	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Elizabeth Edwards, despite her public sickly persona.
21	* TheChosenOne: Obama to the Clintons and [=McCains=], who were so irritated by the media's soft handling of him they felt it was borderline VillainWithGoodPublicity.
22	* CriticalBacklash: [[invoked]] Despite the [=McCains=]' efforts to keep it secret, word got out that Joe Lieberman was set to be [=McCain's=] running mate, setting off anguished cries of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end of conservatism as conservatives knew it]].
23	* DefeatMeansFriendship: The Clintons managed to put aside their initial dislike of Obama and support him in the coming election. Hillary even made a surprise visit on the Democratic Convention floor asking the convention to declare together that Obama would be their candidate and president. It should be noted that subsequently, Obama even made Hillary his Secretary of State. As she explained it, she was surprised when she received his phone call offering the position, and warned him that due to the previous scandals surrounding her husband, the media would use her presence in his cabinet as further ammunition to criticize him. Obama responded that he was aware of what her ties to Bill Clinton would bring, but he was still offering the job, because he genuinely ''needed'' someone of her expertise in such an important position. She was genuinely touched, and they apparently had a good working relationship afterwards.
24	* EnemyMine: [=McCain=] ended up employing people from Bush's campaigns, despite the fact that they ran extremely nasty smears against him during the 2000 primaries, including claiming his adopted daughter from Bangladesh was really his illegitimate child.
25	* ForegoneConclusion: Everyone knows [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama who]] won in the end.
26	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Mitt Romney is this among the Republican candidates, who regard him as a flip-flopping opportunist with no real convictions.
27	* KnightInShiningArmor: [=McCain=] wanted to be this (or at least present himself as this) when he suspended his campaign and rushed back to Washington, D.C. to ensure that Congress passed legislation to prevent the impending financial crisis. Instead, he was flustered to find that the bipartisan committee had all but finished the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) bill, and demanded that they start over (at a time when the entire federal government was racing against the clock to prevent financial Armageddon), then sat through the meetings like a clueless bystander, while Obama (who had also returned to Washington) virtually presided over them. One of [=McCain=]'s long-time friends summed up, ''"If you're going to come riding into Washington on a white horse to slay a dragon, you better have the dragon tied up and tranquilized and ready to die. You don't come in and not slay the dragon and walk out with a whimper."''
28	** Even George W. Bush, who was at least willing to hear his former rival out, seemed angry and embarrassed that [=McCain=] wasted everyone's time, and was also impressed at Obama's insight on the matter.
29	* LesserOfTwoEvils: During the last months of the campaign, one of Obama's pollsters, David Binder, visited a group of undecided voters in Cleveland, Ohio. One woman stated that she and the rest of the group believed most of the conspiracy theories about Obama: that he was not born in the United States, that he was actually a Muslim, and being a Muslim made him secretly sympathetic to terrorists. In some bewilderment, Binder asked if that was the case how could they be "undecided"? The woman explained that they were still weighing whether electing a foreign, Islamic, terrorist sympathizer might be less dangerous than putting Sarah Palin in line to become the next President, if something happened to [=McCain=].
30	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: An extremely disturbing RealLife example with Rielle Hunter to John Edwards:
31	** She was fascinated with New Age philosophy, astrology and reincarnation, and would announce to people she had just met that she was a witch.
32	** She also pumped Edwards up, claiming he could be as great a leader as Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi.
33	** Other Edwards campaign team members who were interviewed describe how she insinuated herself into the entire campaign, becoming Edwards's constant companion - when she had just been hired to run a documentary film crew about the campaign. To this day, that video has never been publicly released, despite the fact that it was the ''one job'' that Rielle was officially supposed to be doing. The reason why is that the other campaign team members state that when they watched the rough cut, Hunter and Edwards were clearly flirting throughout it. Pause a moment and ask yourself:
34	*** 1 - How ''blatantly obvious'' must their flirting have been that even a TV audience that didn't know them personally would pick up on it?
35	*** 2 - This is the video ''Hunter herself'' submitted to them: she had become so removed from reality that she gave them a final cut of a video in which she was obviously flirting with Edwards, with ''zero thought'' to the consequences.
36	*** For that matter, Edwards also knew in most of these shots that he was on camera - [[ImAManICantHelpIt but he was so wrapped up in Hunter's praise that he didn't even think to stop flirting with her.]]
37	* MeetTheNewBoss: A common accusation thrown at [=McCain=] was that he would be Bush Lite.
38	* MistakenForCheating: A rumor circulates that [=McCain=] has had an affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. Both of them categorically deny so much as ever being alone together. [[note]] Though Schmidt confirmed years later that they did indeed. [[/note]]
39	* {{Narcissist}}: John Edwards is portrayed as one of these: He lets crowd reactions go straight to his head, and he lets Rielle Hunter's constant praise go straight to his... other head.
40	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: One of the moments of high drama during the campaign occurred when [=McCain=] demanded that the debate with Obama be postponed, so [=McCain=] could return to Washington and help shepherd through legislation to address the financial crisis. It was intended to be a grand gesture of setting aside partisan politics for the good of the country as a whole, but it misfired badly:
41	** The very act of suspending his campaign to return to Washington only increased public nervousness, undermined confidence in the already-shaky market, and accelerated the collapse that the federal government was trying so desperately to prevent;
42	** When he arrived in Washington, [=McCain=] was aggravated to learn that the bipartisan committee had all but finished hammering out the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and demanded that the Republican representatives scrap the bill and start over - either because he needed to claim some credit for getting the legislation done, or because he took it for granted that any "progress" made by other representatives without his input was meaningless, or both;
43	** Insofar as he did sit in on the continuing TARP negotiations, most of the attendees were struck by how unprepared [=McCain=] was, and how little he had to contribute in the way of practical suggestions - especially compared to Obama, who was also a sitting Senator and had also returned to Washington after the debate was canceled; Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's Chief of Staff, Jim Wilkinson, had already donated $500 to [=McCain=]'s campaign, but after the TARP debacle, he asked for his money back, and cast his vote for Obama;
44	** In [=McCain=]'s absence, Palin was thrust onto center stage, further highlighting how ignorant she was of national issues; in the film, when Schmidt tries to prepare her for questions about how the government is responding to the crisis, he has to start from scratch and explain to her (among other things) what the Federal Reserve does.
45	* RageBreakingPoint: Hillary puts up with a ''lot'' of nonsense during the primaries, but the worst is when MSNBC's David Shuster remarks that her daughter, who has been reportedly calling some unconfirmed delegates, seems to be being "pimped out" on her mother's behalf. This makes Hillary's inner MamaBear come out in full force.
46	* SoreLoser: Hillary doesn't even acknowledge when Obama clinches the number of delegate votes needed for the Democratic nomination, instead giving a speech that suggests she still has a chance to win.
47	* TakingTheHeat: Edwards' SycophanticServant Andrew Young claims ''he'' was the one who had an affair with Hunter resulting in her pregnancy. Nobody buys it.
48	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: [[invoked]] Once it became inevitable that Obama would be the Democratic nominee over Hillary, many of her followers declared they would go with [=McCain=], who increased their support once he chose Sarah Palin.
49	* TrueCompanions: All the campaigns started out with one. [[TearJerker Only Obama's survived.]]
50	* TheUnchosenOne: Sarah Palin; [=McCain=]'s original pick for VP was Joe Lieberman.
51	----
52	!!The TV movie features examples of:
53	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Right after Steve tells one of his colleagues to stop making fun of Dick Cheney, who he thinks is "misunderstood", he has to stop himself from laughing at the next joke. ("How does he eat wearing [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader's]] mask?")
54	* AndImTheQueenOfSheba:
55	-->'''Rick Davis:''' Who knows, we could have another Dewey-Truman situation here...always room for an upset.\
56	'''Steve Schmidt:''' Maybe I'll wake up with a full head of hair.
57	* AttentionWhore: Palin is so concerned about her status in Alaska that she demands they do a poll despite the fact it costs $60,000 and the campaign has half the funds of Obama's. What's worse, she wasn't even running for re-election at the time, her term ended in 2010. After her successful performance at the Vice Presidential debate against UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, her attitude only gets worse. It should be noted that in reality, the poll itself [[ItMakesSenseInContext makes more sense in context]] that isn't provided; given the [[WeAreStrugglingTogether state of Alaskan state politics]] and the rampant mutinees in the Republican base over [=McCain=] and/or Palin, it was essentially meant to see whether Palin's "base state" was secure. This was for the same reason it's wise for a general to make sure [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs the enemy isn't running amok in their base while they're away]]: to keep a safe location and source of support, and avoid potential scandals popping up where they can least afford them.
58	* BigScrewedUpFamily: Averted, the Palins are portrayed as perfectly normal, loving people thrust into a very unnerving situation.
59	* BlatantLies: Palin claiming to reporters that she was cleared in the "[=TrooperGate=]" investigation, when in fact she was censured for it. Schmidt calls her out on this. In real life, this was a bit more contentious and subject to controversy behind the scenes; she was indeed censured by one report, but this report was under suspicion for being a politically motivated hatchet job since many of those who did it were political allies of Obama (or at least enemies of Palin). A later report- by an attempt at a bipartisan/nonpolitical investigation- exonerated her.
60	* {{Bookends}}: Steve Schmidt's interview with Anderson Cooper on ''Series/SixtyMinutes''.
61	* BrutalHonesty: Steve has to resort to this to get anything through Palin's head, due to her NeverMyFault attitude. At first he is direct but kind, but he gets less understanding as the film goes on and she becomes harder to control. One notable example:
62	-->'''Steve:''' Governor, the Katie Couric interview didn't go well. And it wasn't Nicolle Wallace's fault. It wasn't Katie Couric's fault. It wasn't the liberal media's fault. It was your fault, because you didn't prepare. And there can never be another instance of something not going well because you didn't prepare.
63	* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Schmidt wanted to sit out the 2008 cycle, but [=McCain=] convinced him to re-join.
64	* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
65	-->'''Steve:''' I have been asked when her amniotic fluid started to leak with regard to her last birth. It's shameful.\
66	'''Reporter:''' So when ''did'' it start leaking?
67	* ClusterFBomb: [=McCain=]'s way of speaking. Keep in mind that [=McCain=] was a Navy pilot, and the phrase "cursing like a drunken sailor" has become proverbial: Navy men tend to curse very casually. According to people that knew [=McCain=], that's just the register of how he spoke. He did try to restrain it when in public.
68	* DescriptionCut: When [=McCain=] is favoring Lieberman early on, Schmidt warns they'll have to keep it top-secret or the right-wing of the Republican Party will sink the pick - cut to a montage of news reporters lambasting the choice.
69	* TheDreaded: Obama's charisma makes him this to the [=McCain=] political team. One of the first scenes is them watching footage of Obama's speech in Berlin, the sheer size of the crowd is made to look a little terrifying.
70	--> '''John [=McCain=]:''' If he heals a sick baby, we're really fucked.
71	* EveryoneHasStandards: Said by one of the campaign managers: "Dick Cheney said picking her was rash, and when ''Dick Cheney'' has the moral high ground..."
72	* {{Foreshadowing}}: After Steve searches for potential female vice president candidates and watches a clip where Palin is interviewed by Charlie Rose and gives a well-worded response to a question, we see her telling the exact same thing ''word for word'' to a constituent, hinting at her being better at memorizing lines than actually knowing the substance behind them.
73	* FreakOut: After the infamous Katie Couric interview Palin kind of goes into a downward spiral and people start worrying about her mental health (or questioning if she was mentally healthy to begin with). It doesn't help that Palin blames her campaign manager for not prepping her despite the fact it's her own fault she didn't "study".
74	* TheGhost: Barack Obama never appears in person in the movie, and is only shown sparingly in stock footage. Oddly enough, [=McCain's=] in-film depiction is superimposed on real-life news reports over his real-life face, but no such treatment is given to Obama. {{Justified\|Trope}} in that the movie portrays [=McCain=] barely even interactive.
75	* TheGift: Even her harshest critics can't disagree that Palin has a special talent for connecting with voters on rope lines and in her solo speeches.
76	* GilliganCut:
77	** [=McCain=] tells his crew they're going to be adults in this election -- cut to them laughing like schoolboys at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE847UXu3Q this YouTube video mocking John Edwards, another early contender in 2008.]] Even more funny when you consider that all three men watching the video (one of which was a member of Edwards' own party) served with Edwards in the Senate.
78	** When Palin's advisers warn her they'll have to prepare for when the press starts sniffing around about Palin's past and personal life:
79	---> '''Palin:''' Oh gosh, I can't think of anything I haven't already disclosed...\
80	''[cut to Schmidt surrounded by reporters bombarding him with questions about Palin]''
81	* GoshDangItToHeck: Palin's way of speaking, conversely from [=McCain=]'s ClusterFBomb manner of speaking.
82	* HandsOffParenting: [=McCain=] has very little interaction with Palin and at the end he's no longer sure he can control her.
83	* HappilyMarried: Sarah and Todd's only scene together shows him providing moral support that she counts on.
84	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Both Steve Schmidt and John [=McCain=] arguably. Schmidt was more interested into turning Palin into a "celebrity" to combat Obama's popularity that he completely neglected the fact that she was completely ignorant to politics. [=McCain=] completely turned a blind eye to her [[AttentionWhore spotlight seeking.]]
85	* HopeSpot:
86	** The Vice Presidential debate is depicted as this for the [=McCain=] camp. Upon seeing Palin handle the debate calmly and with renewed energy, with almost no gaffes, Steve and the others think they can still win. However, immediately after is when they begin bringing up Rev. Wright and Bill Ayres out of desperation, causing the campaign to nose dive into batshit crazy with Palin at the center.
87	** For all the craziness that Palin is putting them through, Schmidt and Wallace both shine when [=McCain=] takes back the microphone from a racist supporter and firmly tells her that Obama is ''not'' ''"an Arab, a terrorist"'', but instead a ''"decent family man"'' who happens to be on the opposing side. Even with Palin attached, they can feel that they're working to elect the right man as President, and they can do it on character and accomplishments rather than mud-slinging.
88	* HypocriticalHumor: Steve tells [=McCain=] to stop watching ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' and [[UsefulNotes/NewsNetworks Fox News]], because "it's all just bullshit." Then Steve quickly turns off his TV, which is tuned to Fox News, which is just as biased as what [=McCain=] was watching, just towards the other party.
89	* IDidWhatIHadToDo:
90	** Steve Schmidt thinks long and hard about the pros and cons of selecting Sarah Palin as [=McCain=]'s running mate, but ultimately decides, ''"I'd rather lose by ten points going for the win than lose by one point and look back and say, 'goddamn, we should have gone for the win!'"'' He comes to profoundly regret it later.
91	** On Election Night, Nicolle Wallace breaks down in tears and confesses to Steve Schmidt that she couldn't bring herself to vote for [=McCain=], her own party's candidate, because the idea of Palin succeeding him as President was too scary to contemplate. Schmidt hugs her and says he understands completely.
92	* TheIngenue: Palin (and Obama, although he's not the focus of the film).
93	* ImplausibleDeniability: When Steve comments that Todd Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party for seven years, Sarah responds that he checked the wrong box, [[SarcasmMode because people can hold the completely wrong party registration for multiple years]]. [[RealityIsUnrealistic There are actually cases in which this happened, even if it is incredibly unlikely]]: Todd might honestly have checked the wrong box and not noticed he'd registered with the Independence Party for years. Such mistakes have been known to happen. What Palin lies about is that she tells Steve that Todd checked the wrong box "and rectified the error immediately". Todd checking the wrong box isn't "implausible" - what Steve is angry about is that it is a blatant lie to claim that he fixed it "immediately" when the indisputable, recorded fact is that he at the least didn't notice it until seven years later - and that even if the accusation is trivial, making an implausible lie to deny it altogether is drastically worse.
94	* {{Irony}}: [=McCain=] criticizes Obama for his lack of experience and "star power." His team later disregards other looked at options such as Meg Whitman (lots of business experience), Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas (15 years in the Senate at the time), and Susan Collins from Maine (11 years in the Senate, though admittedly not very charismatic) in favor of Palin despite her (relative) lack of political experience (4 years on the city council, then 6 years as mayor of a mildly populated city, and then a year and a half as the governor of one of the most sparsely populated states in the country) because she's charismatic and gun-toting. And [[StacysMom milfy]].
95	* ItsPersonal: [=McCain=] is ''very'' reluctant to use Rev. Jeremiah Wright against Obama because it reminds him of when UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush smeared ''him'' by accusing him of having a black daughter out of wedlock (the girl in question was actually an adoptee from Bangladesh).
96	* ItWillNeverCatchOn: "[The day after the elections] no one will know who Sarah Palin is." Though she hasn't held elected office since, Sarah remained at least tangentially relevant in Right Wing American politics through 2022.
97	* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope:
98	** Averted at first. [=McCain=] refuses to bring up Rev. Wright or Bill Ayres to attack Obama, and only very reluctantly does so late in the campaign, after reminding his team about when ''he'' suffered a personal smear back in 2000. There's also some foreshadowing to the Tea Party, which would rise in Obama's first term.
99	---> '''Rick Davis:''' South Carolina was an ugly primary, but this isn't the same thing! I'm mean, Rev. Wright really did say these things!\
100	'''John [=McCain=]:''' That may be true. But there's a dark side to American populism. Some folks win elections by tapping into it. [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure I'm not one of those people]].
101	** Before the Vice Presidential debate, Steve Schmidt says the campaign staff's best bet is to focus on giving Palin "talking points" to memorize, and admits that trying to get her to actually ''understand'' any of the issues she'll be talking about was a waste of time. In that one statement, he's reconciled himself to the fact that his job is to go all-out in getting Palin into a post for which she is (in his view) spectacularly unqualified.
102	* TheLastDJ: John [=McCain=] gets portrayed as one, being old fashioned in a sense that he no longer has a chance to compete against the charismatic Obama.
103	--> '''John [=McCain=]:''' They used to love me, Steve. Now they're lighting me up like it's goddamn Mardi Gras.
104	* MamaBear: Palin gets especially upset when her family is bashed by the media, and she did not want to say she and Todd were "proud to be grandparents" after their teen daughter's pregnancy is revealed (she's not too thrilled about seeing baby-daddy Levi either: "I see you cut off your mullet").
105	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
106	** Steve says it almost word-for-word (''"what have '''we''' done?"'') watching Palin's disastrous interview with Katie Couric;
107	** When it's clear that they're going to lose, Steve can barely get the words out as he apologizes to [=McCain=] for suggesting Palin as his running mate. [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure McCain]], for his part, is very understanding.
108	** [=McCain=] has one when he realizes he's whipped up racism and xenophobia in his base by going negative on Obama.
109	* NaiveNewcomer: Palin (and Obama, although he's not the focus of the film).
110	* NeverMyFault: Palin, particularly after the disastrous Couric interview, when she gets into a heated argument on the phone with Wallace about it. In all fairness, Palin is a local politician and it was the campaign's fault for selecting her as [=McCain=]'s running mate, so she could have made the humble defense that there's only so much preparation she could do for questions about national issues in a matter of weeks. Instead, her actual response is, "Nicolle, it wasn't my fault! I wasn't properly prepped (by you)!" Wallace desperately retorts that she wasn't "properly prepped" because she didn't listen to Wallace and her other advisers, instead ignoring them when they attempted to prep her. Palin then pulls a 180 turn (forgetting that she just accused Wallace of not prepping her at all), and declares that it's Wallace's fault for overwhelming her with ''too much'' information.
111	* NewMediaAreEvil: Thanks to Website/YouTube and the 24 hour news networks none of the candidates get any relief from criticism and mockery (even from ''Fox News''!). Ironically Palin was picked partially because she looked good on [=YouTube=].
112	* OhCrap:
113	** Many of these occur among the campaign workers during their various dealings with Palin.
114	** Schmidt has one when he tries to quiz Palin with a simple policy question about maintaining America's alliance with Britain; she gives a rote answer about the U.S.'s good relationship with the Queen, and looks baffled when he points out that the Prime Minister, not the Queen, is the head of the British government.
115	** [=McCain=] has one when [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic an angry supporter]] yells "Kill him! ([[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama]])" during a rally.
116	* OutdoorsyGal: Sarah uses her time in Sedona to take mind-clearing morning runs and rehearse her debate lines while sitting in a tree.
117	* PretenderDiss:
118	** At one point, Palin compares herself to UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton -- who, whatever her faults, is indisputably[[note]]well-respected Senator, called one of the finest modern Secretaries of State in American history, and the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major political party in 2016[[/note]] one of the most politically accomplished women in American history. Nicolle Wallace is ''extremely'' unimpressed, and makes that quite clear.
119	--->'''Palin:''' I am not your puppet! ''Now'' I understand what Hillary meant when she said she had to find her own voice!\
120	'''Wallace:''' Yeah. 'Cause you're ''just like'' Hillary.
121	** Inverted when Rick Davis tries to pull one of these on Obama, saying all he has is "star power", which is why they need a "star" like Palin to counteract his influence. Steve Schmidt cheerlessly reminds him that Obama actually has substance to go with his style (he was a Constitutional law professor), while Palin... doesn't. [[note]] Under other circumstances, Palin's status as Governor of Alaska might have been leveraged as more relevant experience than Obama's status as a freshman U.S. Senator, but Palin's media appearances only hung twin lampshades on Obama's surprising grasp of domestic and foreign policy issues, and her own tenuous understanding of anything outside her home state. [[/note]]
122	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Steve's shutdown of Palin toward the end of the movie is full of this.
123	-->'''Steve:''' ''You,'' Sarah Palin, will not change the importance of this '''proud. American. Tradition.'''
124	* ReactionShot: The staff members are regularly displaying an appalled face right after some ignorant, outlandish or inappropriate stuff comes out of Palin's mouth.
125	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [=McCain=]; he doesn't want to use Rev. "God Damn America!" Wright against Obama and he's really disturbed when people start saying Obama is a Muslim Socialist or call for his death.
126	* RunningGag: Senator "Obiden". This really happened and it was yet another of Palin's frustrating "quirks": she kept combining the names of Obama and his running mate Biden...even after being warned about it for weeks, she physically could not break this verbal habit. The cameras caught her asking Joe Biden right before the Vice Presidential debate, "Can I call you Joe?" - which was actually because behind the scenes, she was worried that she'd make the Biden-Obiden gaffe again on camera, despite being fully aware of it.
127	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After Palin's FreakOut over the phone to Nicolle Wallace, blaming her for the disastrous Katie Couric interview, Wallace calmly dials Steve Schmidt and tells him that she's happy to take the blame and be fired from the campaign, if it means never having to deal with Palin again.
128	* SpiritualSuccessor: To Creator/{{HBO}}'s other election movie, ''Recount'', about the 2000 Florida ballot count and also directed by Jay Roach; and possibly a trilogy with ''Film/TooBigToFail'', about the 2008 financial crisis. HBO optioned ''Game Change'''s follow up book ''Double Down'' about the 2012 election, but nothing ever came to fruition.
129	* SpotlightStealingSquad: Sarah Palin, both ''in-universe'' and meta-wise. The book was on the 2008 campaign in general, the movie focuses on Sarah Palin's role in the Republican Campaign. In the movie, Palin is portrayed as an Attention Whore who goes so far as to prepare her own concession speech and has to be told by Schmidt that A) failed vice-presidential candidates don't give concession speeches and B) she is not going steal the attention away from the election of the first African-American president of the United States.
130	* StartXToStopX: As stated in TheDreaded, Obama was such a [[MagneticHero charismatic speaker]] that the [=McCain=] Campaign decided that the only way they would stand a chance is if they could get someone equally charismatic as [=McCain=]'s running mate. The problem though, as Schmidt would later put it:
131	--> '''Steve Schmidt:''' Primary difference being Sarah Palin can't name a Supreme Court decision, whereas Barack Obama was a constitutional law professor.
132	* TookALevelInJerkass: After Palin's debate with Biden her confidence soars and she starts making unplanned statements to reporters, contradicting [=McCain's=] policies about stem cell research despite saying she wouldn't, and most importantly, even wants to make her own concession speech on election night. As Schmidt sternly explains to her, no Vice Presidential candidate has ever given their own concession speech ''in all of American history'', and her request is shockingly arrogant. She counters that traditions change. True, the first black man was just elected president - but Schmidt explains that the concession speech is a solemn occasion to cement American democracy (the US isn't prone to starting civil wars when one side loses an election because the losing side always respects the election results). Palin can't seem to understand that even if there is no official reason she can't give her own concession speech, that purely from a public relations perspective the press would tear her apart for being self-centered if she gave one. Her behavior is so aggravating that [[spoiler:even her own campaign manager couldn't vote for her]].
133	* TragicMistake: The framing of the scene where [=McCain=] makes the decision to pick Palin. It's never stated or implied that he would have won without her. But the stakes are laid out plainly for him. When the question is put to John:
134	--> '''Mark Salter:''' You might not only lose the election, John. You just might lose your reputation right along with it.\
135	'''John [=McCain=]''' ''[{{beat}}]'' I'm not running for my reputation. I'm running to be President.
136	* TroubledProduction: [[invoked]] The campaign gets shades of this in a very bad way once Palin comes aboard.
137	* UnlimitedWardrobe: Palin is criticized for the lavish shopping spree the GOP sent her on when she was to be elevated into the national spotlight.
138	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: A common accusation. While a lot of the events and politicking are accurate, a lot of them are at best...dubious. A basic rule of thumb is the more a given fact focuses on Palin, the less likely it is to be reliable.
139	* ViewersAreMorons: InUniverse. In fairness to Palin, one newscaster says most Americans probably can't name a Supreme Court decision, explain why North and South Korea are separate countries, or understand the difference between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. He then adds that the problem is most Americans aren't running for Vice President of the United States.
140	* YouAreInCommandNow: As [=McCain=] leaves to give his concession speech, he tells Palin that she is now one of the leading members of the Republican Party and to not let people like Radio/RushLimbaugh rip it apart.

Context Literature / GameChange