Artists' Complaints About Pols' Use of Songs Off-Key

Campaign aims to do the opposite of McCain

(NEWSER) - Team Romney’s rule of thumb: Do the opposite of everything John McCain did in 2008, or so reports Politico in a look at the campaign's strategy. The approach applies broadly, say advisers—focus hugely on the economy, fully engage in fundraising, integrate early with the Republican National Committee—but comes most into play in the search for a VP. The campaign doesn’t want to end up with its own version of Sarah Palin, so it is going to great lengths to avoid anyone who could be seen as unprepared. The goal, according to one official: Go with an "incredibly boring white guy." More»

'I'm not going to watch it,' says Arizona senator

(NEWSER) - Maybe John McCain also wanted Brad Pitt to play him , but he's certainly no fan of Game Change, deriding the movie based on his 2008 presidential campaign to Fox News Sunday as "based on a book that's completely biased and with unattributed quotes. I'm not going to watch it." Politico notes that a main beef appears to be his potty-mouthed portrayal, by actor Ed Harris: "I don’t use coarse language very often. I have a larger vocabulary than that," he says. 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»

Tea Party hero lends support to former running mate

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin spoke at a rally for John McCain today in Tucson, the first time the two have stumped together since the 2008 presidential campaign. McCain is in a tight primary fight with JD Hayworth, who is attempting to paint the senator as insufficiently conservative. Palin delivered some much-needed Tea Party cred: McCain, she said has been "leading the fight against reckless spending for decades." More»