I’ve seen “Game Change” twice now. At first watch, you almost feel sorry for Sarah Palin, thrown into the 24 news cycle and possibly the most intense campaign of her life without seeming to understand what she was really getting herself into.

The second time around, you wonder what the McCain camp was really thinking.

The 2008 election was many things, and like the movie title suggests, it was a game changer. Before watching the movie, my impression of Palin centered around her shocking brand of bizarre and untruthful declarations (“Polls are for cross-country skiers and strippers” or “But obviously we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies”).

Much of the movie centers around Steve Schmidt’s character, the senior campaign advisor to McCain who is portrayed as intuitive, smart and intent on winning.

He describes Obama as a celebrity, a man who is able to pull in more than three times as much funding without having any “real accomplishments.” He says what the McCain campaign needs is something different, something that changes the game. After a polling strategist is consulted, Schmidt decides the only way to win the race is to close the gender gap (in other words, pick a woman for the V.P. nominee).

In a promising effort to find a candidate, campaign manager Rick Davis is shown sifting through YouTube clips of women political figures and finally lands on a clip of Sarah Palin on Charlie Rose. He seems completely enamored; by what, though, remains unclear.

And so, the nation’s most notorious hockey mom was born.

Palin, who is played by Julianne Moore, is portrayed as pretty, willing and a tad naive but eager to support McCain. Eventually unable to handle the pressure and responsibility of her position, her character deteriorates to someone who denies the truth, decides to take matters into her own hands and consistently blames others for her lack of political prowess (she blames her Katie Couric interview on Katie Couric).

The media chewed her up and spit her out about as quickly as McCain decided his election was going to be more about winning than it was about running the kind of campaign he really believed in.

After it becomes clear that her foreign policy skills are seriously limited (she thought the queen was the head of government in England) and didn’t have a grip on our own governmental institutions (didn’t know what the Federal Reserve System did), the McCain campaign realizes it may have bitten off more than its campaign could handle.

However, the movie seems to be less a critique of her character than of the McCain campaign’s decision to pick her.

In an attempt to put “Country First,” the Arizona senator may have made one of the bigger mistakes of his life while also leaving a lasting stain on American politics.

Schmidt recently gave an interview to Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe, saying that the movie was “very accurate.” He also took ownership of his role in Palin’s nomination:

“When a result happens that puts someone who’s not prepared to be president on the ticket, that’s a bad result. I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly. And I played a part in that. And I played a part in that because we were fueled by ambition to win.”

In an effort to battle Obama’s “celebrity” status, Schmidt chose a candidate that had star power but scarcely had the credentials to be a governor, let alone vice president.

It changed the dynamic of the race to one that was less about the campaign’s values and more about winning at all costs. In the movie, McCain expresses interest in choosing Sen. Joe Lieberman as the V.P. nominee, but Schmidt responds by saying, “Choosing Lieberman is the right thing to do, but the wrong way to win.”

Besides dragging down the campaign, choosing Palin left the McCain camp looking less credible than ever. It also gave rise to, in many respects, a frightening political personality. Palin may largely be regarded as a loose canon, but she remains a hero to her fans. Her nomination gave way to a persona that shouldn’t represent the Republican party, or any party really.

Her rise to power has by and large come from inciting fear in people, rather than from an established platform. She would regularly tell large crowds that Obama has covert ties to domestic terrorism and that he wants to see the United States defeated in war. Rather than discussing the issues and coming up with real solutions, she has made her name by rallying people against the current administration.

In doing so, she changed the nature of the McCain campaign and campaigning in general.

At the end of the movie, there seems to be an understanding that Sarah Palin would fade as quickly as she came.

There’s a moment where Schmidt’s character tries to console Palin as she tries to take in all the criticism “News is no longer meant to be remembered, its just entertainment”.

That may or may not to be true, but Sarah Palin isn’t going anywhere — and neither are her fans.

_Nishat is a senior in LAS._