It’s fair to say that Sarah Palin isn’t happy about her portrayal in HBO’s new docudrama, “Game Change” — based on the bestseller by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann about John McCain‘s 2008 presidential run. So SarahPAC is fighting back with a new ad to set the record straight — but her PAC has chosen some strange cheerleaders for that effect.
Former McCain advisor Nicole Wallace had a quick soundbite in the ad where she described Palin as a “feisty, strong, tough and straight-talking governor” — but the two have locked horns since the campaign ended, with Wallace criticizing Palin’s “incredible cynicism, her bitterness, her aggressive attempts to claw anyone that points out an area for her to work on.” Republican strategist Steve Schmidt also has a soundbite in the ad, touting Palin’s “tremendous record of accomplishment” — but he described Palin in much humbler terms when discussing her troubles with debate prep. “[One staffer] told us the debate was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions,” Schmidt told Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” that “[Palin] was not focused … not engaged.”
While Palin has taken issue with the “Game Change” trailer (she hasn’t seen the film in its entirety), HBO executive VP Quentin Schaffer released a letter defending the movie’s accuracy. Noting that much of the backlash about the film “has come from several Palin aides trying to discredit it even though they haven’t yet seen it,” Schaffer wrote that “Game Change” authors Halperin and Heilemann checked “every draft of the script to ensure its historical accuracy and thoroughness,” adding that “When their book came out in 2010, it went unchallenged and unrefuted by the Palin camp.”
