The film “Game Change” ends up being just as much about McCain campaign adviser Steve Schmidt as it is about vice presidential pick Sarah Palin. So while it was nice to have actresses Julianne Moore and Sarah Paulson, who play Sarah Palin and McCain aide Nicolle Wallace respectively, in town for the premiere, Schmidt was the go-to guy for how well the film pulled off reality.
“It’s the truth of what happened in [the] campaign,” Schmidt told Yeas & Nays. “For me it really reminded me of her tremendous talent, her ability to connect with voters, why we picked her, why we were so enthusiastic.” Schmidt said he had only gotten to see “Game Change” the day before it premiered Thursday at the Newseum. “It was a surreal experience to watch it,” he said. “For me one of the things the movie really captures is the decency and character of John McCain, and I’m really happy about that, I think that for everyone who sees the movie they get to see the guy that all of us loved.”
Recommended Stories
Schmidt also had nice things to say about Woody Harrelson, who plays Schmidt in the film. “He’s a great actor, he’s a great actor,” Schmidt said, though said the two had no plans to hang out.
Besides Schmidt, news clips of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Dana Bash and Gloria Borger were used in the film, and all three were spotted at the D.C. premiere. On top of the CNN folks, the event attracted a ton of journalists and TV personalities, while being light on the political types. In the crowd we saw “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Luke Russert, the Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson and Politico’s Mike Allen.
