Game Change

For you, picking Sarah Palin was about winning an election,

not necessarily about who's gonna be best as vice president.

My job is to give political advice.

We needed to do something bold

to try to win the race.

If you had it to do over again,

would you have her on the ticket?

- Hello. - They fuckin' hate me, Steve.

Who's that, sir?

Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter.

They're dancing on my grave like it's fucking Mardi Gras.

That may be true, but there's an upside

to being in last place.

You can say what you truly feel.

- You think I've been holding back? - I do, Senator.

The surge is working,

but no one else is brave enough to say it.

Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee...

all your opponents are hedging.

Even you hesitated at the last debate.

A great man once told me,

"I would rather lose the election

than see the country lose this war."

And I meant it, Steve.

Then say it, sir.

John McCain doesn't say what's popular,

he says what's right.

My advice would be

to get some old POW buddies together

and travel the country in a small caravan.

Stay in shitty hotels,

do American Legion halls,

V.F.W. posts, have a few beers

and enjoy yourself.

You're right, goddamn it.

I don't know what the hell's wrong with me.

You get so caught up in winning,

- you start to lose yourself. - It's gonna be easy because

there's only one message you need to get across.

Yeah? What's that?

John McCain puts country first.

Would you consider joining us?

Even just for a few weeks?

Senator, there is no one in this race

I admire more than you, but I promised my wife

that I would sit this cycle out.

I know that, Steve,

but will you just think about it?

Just do that... Just think about it, will you?

Of course, Senator.

- You promise? - I will, I promise.

Great, I'll call you tomorrow.

- Okay. - Thanks, Stevie boy.

Fuck.

Senator McCain today reshuffling

his most senior campaign staff.

John McCain wins the New Hampshire primary,

a huge comeback for the senator from Arizona.

You hear them chanting behind me...

"Mac is back, Mac is back."

A big win for John McCain in South Carolina,

a win that he will relish.

The question on the campaign trail was

can a soufflé rise twice?

John McCain wins the Republican presidential nomination.

What a historic night.

And they said we were dead.

Next stop: the White House.

Obama! Obama!

People of Berlin

and people of the world,

the scale of our challenge is great.

The road ahead will be long.

But I come before you

to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom.

We are a people of improbable hope

with an eye towards the future,

with resolve in our heart.

Let us remember this history

and answer our destiny

and remake the world once again.

Thank you, Berlin. God bless you.

- Thank you.

If he heals a sick baby, we're really fucked.

We're down by 15.

If his convention speech is as good as that...

It'll be better.

Then we'll be trailing by 20

going into St. Paul.

It's an uphill battle, John.

Well, as Chairman Mao was fond of saying,

"It's always darkest before it's completely black."

Senator, it always concerns me when you quote Chairman Mao.

This guy is raising money

like he's some sort of a human A.T.M. machine.

John, if there ever was a time

to run a Reverend Wright ad, this is that time.

- Absolutely not. - I agree.

There's footage of his own reverend saying "goddamn America."

It's the single best weapon we've got.

I want to run a fucking campaign that my kids can be proud of,

and that precludes attacking a black reverend.

I think we're going about this all wrong.

This man is on the cover of every news magazine.

He's on the cover of every entertainment magazine.

He's got 200,000 people screaming for him in Berlin.

And what has he done?

A man of no accomplishment

has become the biggest celebrity in the world,

and we keep trying to reach up and pull him down.

What we need to do is ask the American people

a very simple question:

Do you want a statesman to be your next president...

or do you want a celebrity?

Try it.

He's the biggest celebrity in the world.

Obama! Obama!

But is he ready to lead?

With gas prices soaring,

Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling

and says he'll raise taxes on electricity?

Higher taxes, more foreign oil...

that's the real Obama.

Great job, Fred.

I thought we were the grown-ups in this race.

John, it's his girlfriend.

This is a cautionary tale, John.

It's what I'm talking about.

Yeah, right. Yeah, let's...

- Let's watch it again. - No, I can't, I can't! Please.

See, that's what I'm talking about.

Now can you believe these guys?

He wants Lieberman on the ticket.

- Of course he does. - Disaster.

Or historic.

- Or historic disaster. - John loves him.

It would be a strong move towards bipartisanship.

Guys, the base is already concerned

that John is not a true conservative.

Now, I don't think picking a pro-choice Jewish Democrat

who just happened to be Al Gore's running mate

is going to alleviate that concern.

Maybe we have McCain make a one-term pledge.

He announces in some huge speech that he and a Democrat

are joining together for one term

so that the parties can come together

and solve this country's greatest problems.

Maybe, with a one-term pledge.

Nothing says country first like picking Joe Lieberman.

Well, if it's gonna work,

it has to remain absolutely secret,

right up until the convention.

If it gets leaked, the right will kill it.

John McCain's decision to put Joe Lieberman

front and center at his convention

has the unique distinction of unsettling

both Democrats and Republicans.

I think the idea of him being the Republican

vice presidential nominee would split the convention.

In the cabinet, fine. Not as V.P.

Bad choice. Conservatives will bolt.

Comedy team of McCain and Lieberman.

Maybe they'll play Atlantic City this summer.

Thank you.

So what the fuck happened?

Lindsey Graham was trying to build support for the idea

- and it leaked. - Goddamn it, Lindsey.

Well, if it's any consolation,

my numbers show that if you pick Lieberman

or any pro-choice candidate,

40% of your core supporters

will be less likely to support you.

40%.

And you gain very few independents.

Overall, it's a wide-net negative.

We've made a lot of calls. Some people don't even think

Lieberman can make it through the convention.

Others say, yeah, he can,

but he's gonna rip the party in half.

But Joe is perfect. We're both mavericks

that are hated by the assholes in our own parties.

It could have a tremendous healing effect on the country.

We can't win without our base.

Lieberman is the right thing to do,

but the wrong way to win.

- Who all have we vetted? - Romney, Crist, Pawlenty.

- We're trying to vet Bloomberg. - Who can we win with?

- None of them. - None of them?

John, Obama just changed the entire dynamic.

It is a change year, sir.

We desperately need a game-changing pick,

and none of these middle-aged white guys are game-changers.

So... what?

I just fuck off and die?

Well, the data shows we have four things we have to do.

We have to win back the independents,

we have to excite the base,

we have to distance ourselves from the Bush administration,

and we have to close the gender gap.

How bad is the gap?