Mailed Threats Shut Down Two McCain Offices

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»

Emotions ran high during health reform debate

(NEWSER) - As the health reform debate reached a fever pitch last year, so too did the threats against lawmakers. The FBI investigated at least 26 threats last year, according to documents obtained by the Hill, a significant upswing from the previous year, and more than any other year on record. Nearly half of those cases came in the weeks surrounding the health care vote in March, with many threats seemingly intent on influencing lawmakers' votes on the bill. More»

Ex-Treasury sec says Mac risked putting US economy in freefall for 'political gambit'

(NEWSER) - With the US economy in utter freefall, John McCain suspended his presidential campaign, jetted to Washington, called a meeting to fix the crisis—then did nothing, according the Henry Paulson's new book, On the Brink . In an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal, the former Treasury secretary recounts McCain's odd refusal to speak at the emergency meeting he called, and how the Democrats and Barack Obama pounced. 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."