My sympathies
10/10
Author: Ari Asulin from United States
11 March 2012

awesome movie! loved every minute.

I think the palin hate train has come to an end. We all had fun at her expense. At this point in the game I feel people are really sitting down and looking at what happened. There will always be those loyal to their party (on both sides) who refused to keep an open mind about any of this, and I'm sure you will see that well illustrated in the comments below, however, as much as I personally deride the Republican Party for becoming what it has, this movie left me feeling sorry for both McCain and Palin, and sympathizing with their plight.

McCain was always well liked in my state (AZ) and always worked across the aisle to solve our State and Country problems. He had a pretty good record. Everything from jobs to promoting health care for the poor (yep, this used to be a Republican priority). I feel that this movie very well illustrates how he changed. McCain allowed his campaign to be driven by the need to win, and compromised his own integrities. He did not do this lightly or even willingly, but slowly it happened.

First, he allowed Palin to join the team for the purposes of winning (game changing pig) when he knew nothing about her and knew others were far more qualified to be President. Second, as the Palin problems started to arise, he tried to distance himself from them. In his mind, he was still running an honest campaign. Whatever was going on with Palin was not his responsibility. Finally he gave in to allowing his campaign to indulge in hateful, attack rhetoric against Obama that he clearly was opposed to (and has always been classically opposed to during his years in politics).

This period transformed him into the McCain we see today. The Maverick is gone. The new McCain is not so dissimilar from the party line. The new McCain panders to the TeaParty and extremists of Republican ideology. The new McCain contradicts the old McCain on a myriad of issues; everything from national health care, to campaign finance reform, to aiding the poor, and building infrastructure. To maintain his integrity, he finds himself focusing on the New Republican Party's safe zone: Foreign Policy. Unfortunately he has become vocal about reducing taxes on the rich, and has even begun to oppose women's rights.

I still believe McCain is a great human being and an excellent Republican Senator. To me, its not so much how he changed as it is the forces at work that changed him. That is the McCain Tragedy. As for Palin, there isn't much to say. I feel that many people in this world are self-serving, single-minded, ignorant, malicious, and we could judge her all day on these attributes, and whatever else. Makes for poor discussion.

The real value of Game Change is that it does not focus on these trivialities. This isn't SNL. We all know the Palinisms by heart already. The movie instead focused on the effects of this debacle on the people around Palin, the Republican Party, and indeed the entire country. It is an indictment of many things wrong with politics,while also reminding us of the unavoidable karma that comes with being in the wrong. You can ignore it, denigrate it, spin it all you want, but it all comes out eventually, and justice is served.

You can't fool all the people all the time.