McCain, GOP Settle With Jackson Browne

GOP as useless as 7 vowels in Scrabble, needs new letters

(NEWSER) - Just like you get to throw in your tiles when Scrabble gives you seven useless vowels, so too do Republican voters keep picking again—and coming up with the same useless tiles, says Thomas Friedman in the New York Times . That's because the GOP is an out-of-date "captive of conflicting ideological bases," including anti-abortion forces, anti-taxes, anti-immigration, libertarians, and more. What America really needs is a second party in its two-party system—ie, "a coherent Republican opposition" that is able to respond realistically to the true problems facing the United States. "We need a 'Different Kind of Republican' the way Bill Clinton gave us a 'Different Kind of Democrat,'" writes Friedman. And maybe that means a crushing defeat in this election to force a hard reboot. 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»

Ad's message is 'guess what, it's your turn,' he says

(NEWSER) - Signalling a no-holds-barred fight ahead, Mitt Romney is standing by the use of an out-of-context quote from President Obama in his first TV ad . The ad—slammed by Democrats and called "ridiculously misleading" by non-partisan campaign watchdog Politifact—features Obama saying, "If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose," without mentioning that he was quoting John McCain's campaign in 2008. More»

Obama campaign blasts 'deceitful' attack ad

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney has rolled out the first TV ad of his 2012 campaign—and he has John McCain to thank for its most effective line. The ad begins with images of President Obama on the stump in 2008, saying: "I am confident that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis," and "If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose." The latter line, the Obama campaign was quick to point out, was first said by McCain and later mocked by Obama. More»