COMMENTARY | Julianne Moore, who does not so much portray as she caricatures former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in an upcoming HBO documentary "Game Change," said about Palin's role in the 2008 election something very revealing about her.
Moore pronounced herself terrified of Palin, according to the Washington Examiner. Her presence on the ticket might well have swung the election to Sen. John McCain. And yet Moore does not think Palin was qualified to be vice president.
Moore could not help but be impressed with Palin. She pronounced her attractive and relatable. But Moore is also shocked at the showmanship aspect to politics. She also does not explain why she thinks Palin was not qualified to be vice president, especially as compared to the gaffe-prone current occupant of that office.
There are two reasons Moore can hold inside her head these conflicting thoughts. One, she is a self-confessed liberal Democrat. Two, she very likely stuck to the source material for the movie, which Big Hollywood suggests is inaccurate and filled with smears.
She would have been advised to read Palin's own writings, including her two books, "Going Rogue" and "America by Heart," as well as posts on her Facebook page and some of her op-eds. Moore would have discovered the person she portrayed is intelligent, savvy and very much underestimated and maligned.
Hollywood generally does not get conservatives, especially conservative women. We have recently been treated to a biop of Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, that depicted the greatest British prime minister of the latter part of the 20th century as a doddering old lady. The people who produce popular culture can no more imagine a woman who is conservative, religious, successful and intelligent than they can imagine unicorns and leprechauns.
Palin has pronounced herself unconcerned about the sordid way she is going to be portrayed in "Game Change," according to Politico. That is a good public stance to take. The only people who will believe they are not watching fiction will be die hard Palin haters. The rest will content themselves with seeing a DVD of "The Undefeated," a far more accurate depiction of the woman who is in many ways the most powerful female politician in the world.
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