The Man, and the Message, McCain's Been Missing

McCain's move from tactic to tactic resulted in confused overall strategy

(NEWSER) - John McCain’s campaign has gone through a dizzying number of narratives, as Robert Draper outlines in the New York Times. Draper looks inside a dysfunctional operation driven by two quarreling old McCain friends (Rick Davis and speechwriter Mark Salter), and the Rovian outsider who reconciled them (Steve Schmidt). The troika has engineered at least six separate messages because, one insider said, “we still couldn’t answer the question ‘Why elect John McCain?’” More»

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."

HBO debuts first teaser

(NEWSER) - For all of you who have spent the past nine months wondering how Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin impersonation will stack up against Tina Fey’s , you finally have your answer. HBO debuted its first teaser trailer for Game Change, the film due in March that's based on the Mark Halperin-John Heilemann book about the 2008 presidential election. Neither Ed Harris as John McCain nor Woody Harrelson as top adviser Steve Schmidt sound much like their real-life counterparts, notes David Jackson in USA Today , but Moore’s Palin is spot-on: Numerous publications including People , New York , the Huffington Post , and Jezebel are fairly impressed. More»

Find out who gets bloodied in Palin's book

(NEWSER) - It's the read all of Washington has been waiting for, but, alas, it has no index. Lest Sarah Palin's friends, foes, and frenemies be forced to read it all the way through to see how they made out, Politico's Jonathan Martin and Andy Barr offer a guide: Friends

• John McCain: Palin praises him, but ruefully recalls his decision to muzzle her on election night.
• Joe Lieberman: The one-time Democrat's advice was “so heartfelt, so genuine, so sincere.”
• Steve Biegun: Rumored to be the aide responsible for connecting Palin with the Candian DJ who pretended to be Sarkozy, Palin calls him "an absolutely stellar professional."

McCain team wrote 'palling around with terrorists' line: book

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin was actually on message when she attacked Barack Obama’s relationship with former Weatherman Bill Ayers during last year's campaign, the Atlantic reports. A new book, The Battle for America, reveals that Palin received an email from top McCain staff suggesting she use the Ayers attack. It even specified the approved language. Strategists also planned to run a similar TV ad. More»