On Talk Shows, Dems Slam Palin

Va. governor Kaine says Mac can't win without his state

(NEWSER) - A confident John McCain “guaranteed” today that election night will be a nail-biter, but that he will win. “We're going to do well in this campaign, my friend,” McCain told Tom Brokaw on NBC’s Meet the Press. The prediction comes as polls show the GOP hopeful closing the gap with Barack Obama, Politico reports. The Republican also said he was “disappointed” by Colin Powell’s Obama endorsement and defended Sarah Palin’s $150,000 shopping bill. More»

VP candidate's negatives up over last week

(NEWSER) - Excitement over Sarah Palin won’t last, Karl Rove told the AP last night. The Republican strategist said Palin was picked for “political” reasons, and acknowledged she was not the most qualified VP candidate available, although he feels she is ready for the job. Opinion polls support Rove on the Palin bounce: approval ratings for John McCain’s running mate have fallen in the past week. 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»

And he's not the only one who thinks so

(NEWSER) - The saga continues: Donald Trump thinks Jon Huntsman is a "joke candidate." Huntsman thinks Trump's debate "is a joke." More from the candidate's comments, made today, plus other reactions to the controversial Dec. 27 debate:

• Huntsman: "This is not about ratings for Donald Trump, this is about jobs for the American people. This is a serious debate that we ought to be having here in the United States," he said on NBC's Today . "I believe that the presidency of the United States of America is beyond reality shows. This is a joke."
• Robert Gibbs: “Cancel Christmas. Just get ready for the Donald Trump debate," said the former White House spokesperson on Morning Joe, according to Politico . "Pay-per-view. Pay-per-view. We ought to have this, the new rule, I think you’ve heard, you have to have your birth certificate to participate in the debate. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel."