Why Steve Schmidt's Gunning for Sarah Palin

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."

Former McCain strategist calls 'Game Change' 'very accurate'

(NEWSER) - Steve Schmidt, the former John McCain campaign strategist portrayed by Woody Harrelson in HBO's Game Change, pulled no punches when describing his reaction to the book on MSNBC this morning. "I think it was very accurate. For all of us in the campaign, it really rang true. It gave you a little bit of PTSD at times," he said, before going on to add that Sarah Palin was "not prepared" to potentially assume the presidency when the campaign chose her as the VP candidate, and that the very "notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly." 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»

McCain-Palin campaign steered by former Bush workers

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin may be a newcomer to national politics, but her army of aides has ace operatives who chiseled their craft working for George Bush's campaigns and administration, reports the Washington Post. They won the White House —twice —but some Republican loyalists question if the former Bush communications experts and strategists should be the ones steering a campaign themed on change. More»