In paperback from Amazon for $11.20
Buy it if: National politics is your bag, but you’re sick of partisan offerings a la Mark Levin
Don’t buy it if: You want the bare-knuckles, down-in-dirt-version of the of the movie. They are largely the same with regard to the Sarah Palin storyline.
I know what you’re probably thinking: You watched “Game Change” on HBO and it sure seemed like it was true. Crazy, but true. After all, much of the mostly unbelievable dialogue was nothing more than a direct lift from actual interviews, so is it really possible that the stuff from behind closed doors was just as accurate? If you’re like me, your instinct is telling you that the picture painted by in the film is disturbingly on target.
So who wouldn’t want to get the book and observe the veracity of the facts? Especially if there’s even more that simply didn’t make the cut…
Well, for those searching for a ‘director’s cut’ amount of Sarah Palin gaffs and foibles, I’m sorry to say the movie has already delivered most of the salient details. It’s fairly reassuring (or completely distressing, depending upon how you look at it) to read that most everything played out on HBO’s small screen was verified by multiple sources or outright recorded and transcribed. Even the staunchest Palin defender would have to have their head fairly deep in the sand to question the accuracy of the authors’ writing, especially given the deep context and sources to which they were privy.
However, purchasing the book for the Palin drama alone would be a mistake. All told, there are fewer than 80 pages about McCain’s erstwhile running mate. The majority of the writing contained within has do with showdown between Obama and Clinton in the primaries and McCain’s come from behind campaign leading up to his own nomination. Indeed, the authors, to their credit, focused on things that have had and will have a major impact on how the US chooses the executive branch of the government in the years to come. I haven’t read such a compelling take on the process in a long time and anyone with even a passing interest in the subject will be certain to enjoy their long peek behind the curtain that often obscures the dirty (though not as much as you think) machinery of national politics.
You may come to see just how nuts things really got on the McCain/Palin ticket, but you’ll surely end up equally – if not more – fascinated by what really went into choosing the president in 2008.
