Game Change Response- Izzy Lobin

Question 1 Response:

Political vetting is extremely important to any political appointment. If a candidate goes through vetting without any problems, then nothing should go wrong. But, as the McCain-Palin campaign shows, you need to have an extreme and intense vetting program in order to do it well. The vetting process needs to include a question/research portion covering every aspect of a candidate’s life. This includes their personal life, political views, and political history. All of this needs to be accounted for in order to assure that a candidate won’t be stepping over any of the lines that you set up around their possible position. The intensity and specificity of this process is vital to a candidate’s future success. If something is missed during the process, everything could unravel. This happened with Palin multiple times. Some of the most embarrassing discoveries for the campaign included Palin’s lack of knowledge on almost all national and international political topics; her husband’s involvement with an Alaskan secession movement; and her daughter’s teen-pregnancy. All of these areas having not been discovered in the vetting phase led to a lack of their assessment by the campaign, and therefore sent the media and other politicians into a frenzy. The blowing-up of these discoveries of Palin’s life show how quickly a bad vetting process can go south, and how truly important the vetting process is.

Question 3 Response:

I think that a POTUS or VPOTUS should, at the very least, have a general knowledge of the issues they will be dealing with. It’s obviously impossible to hold the standard that they should know everything about every political topic, but if they’re going to a meeting with the president of China they should be briefed before hand. So maybe the better answer isn’t that they should need to be experts in all fields, but that they should have a general knowledge and be able to retain a briefing and all other important information during a time in which they make important decisions or speak to important people. Palin’s campaign interviews where she wouldn’t allow her staff to brief her are a prime example of why it’s important to have vital information at the right time. If she’d listened to and remembered her briefings, she probably would have had no problem answering the simple questions. But instead, Palin was unable to answer and instead responded in a way they hurt the whole campaign. And this situation could be much worse if a sitting POTUS didn’t listen to their briefings, because then they may end up making important decisions without any real information. So no, I don’t think a POTUS or VPOTUS need to be experts in all fields, but at the very least they must have a general knowledge on the topic.

Game Changer Blog Post- Xavier Rivera

1. Political vetting is important because as we saw in the movie when someone like Sarah Palin was not properly vetted, which was because they liked the look of the candidate but not the substance. It is also important because as learned in the movie it is important to properly vet people to make sure that they understand the policies that the candidates support and more importantly why we are fighting wars. Also because that way you understand what kind of candidate you are getting and in order to determine if they are mentally healthy and fit in order to do the job and represent your party well. Examples of the importance of vetting with in the movie were when she didn’t know why wars were started, or anything about foreign policy like when she said Russia was seen from Alaska. Also an example of this is when she constantly wanted to do her own thing and had many mental breakdowns, and when she kept going against Mccain's Opinions and made him look bad.
2. I do believe that Mccain should have kept Palin away from the international and big time media. She was ill prepared on too many topics in order to use the strategy of “ Fake it til you make it” and this made it especially hard considering that she did not want to prepare and had mental breakdowns. Also since these are well credited reporters and since she was uninformed and not good enough to engage in deep conversation and was weak on many issues I do believe that they should have kept her away from the international media.. But I do not blame Mccain from not hiding palin from the media considering the fact that he did not know that she was clueless considering his campaign kept him in the dark about that.

Game Change - Josh O'Steen

9. Do governors, senators, house of representatives need to know and understand history, economic policy, international relations? Is holding political office a means of being in touch with popular culture and contemporary issues or is it more important to have a knowledge of history, econ, policy issues?

I believe that governors, senators, and members of the House of Representatives all need to at least have a basic if not a more defined understanding of history, economic policy, and international relations. It is extremely important that government officials have an understanding of the subjects that do and will affect their constituents. For example, concerning history and economic policy, all government officials need to understand history so they know the mistakes that were made in the past so they do not redo them, and they need to understand economic policy because it is economic policy that essentially drives the success of their respective districts/states. As for international relations, it is less important for a governor to have a deep understanding of international relations because they do not negotiate or converse with foreign nations like Congress or the Executive Branch does.

As for the importance of being in touch with popular culture and contemporary issues versus the importance of having knowledge in history, economics, and policy issues, both are very important when it comes to holding a political office. Being someone who is in touch with popular culture and contemporary issues will make you more likable and relatable to your constituents which is always important when attempting to stay in office and passing legislation aimed at helping your own constituents. Having a good understanding of history, economics, and policy issues is also invaluable in making good policy decisions that will ultimately benefit your constituents.

Ryan Harrison- Game change

2. I think that popularity is more important than being a “career politician” in political campaigns. In the end of the day most voters are going to vote for the politician that they like the most. So the person who wins over the most amount of people with their character and friendliness will most likely win the race. But this must come with knowledge in the political field too, you can't just be liked without any knowledge. I think Obama was a perfect example of this. He was the more liked nominee because he was younger, more charismatic, and friendlier than John Mccain.

3. Yes they both need to be highly knowledgeable about all of the issues during their campaign. It is more important for the president to be knowledgeable, but if the VP doesn't know their stuff then it makes it look like the POTUS and VP aren't on the same page. Sarah Palin really hurt the Mccain campaign because she didn't have the same knowledge that he did. The media turned their campaign into a joke because of the idiotic stuff Sarah Palin said.

Game Change - Michael Schroeder

What is more important “career politicians” with lots of experience or popularity when it comes to national political campaigns?

I believe that popularity is more important in national political campaigns as seen in the last three presidential elections. Hillary Clinton has decades of political experience, she was the first lady, a senator, and the Secretary of State. Her opponent, Donald Trump, has had a full zero years of political experience before becoming the highest level politician in the nation. Clinton’s speeches didn’t rally up the public the same way that Trump’s did. Obama was a United States Senator for less than four years, and he had a decent amount of time being involved in the Illinois government. John McCain has been in congress (the House and then Senate) since 1982. He had much more political experience than Obama, however, Obama was almost a celebrity. People loved him. His speeches got people rallied in a way that only he could. Recent history shows that popularity is more important than experience. I believe that experience is more important, but I see why popularity is how people win. I wouldn’t vote for someone that I hate even if they have lots of experience and would cater to my political beliefs.

Compose your own question that is multi-layered and produced meaningful thought on Game Change.

Do you think that Sarah Palin should hold the sole responsibility for McCain losing the 2008 election? Was McCain too soft on Obama? Why do you think that they lost the election?

Game Change-Ayoub El Ashmawi

1. Political vetting is extremely important because it needs to be ensured that the people who are elected to office are qualified and are knowledgeable enough to make big decisions that will alter the state of the union. If they are not qualified, they could possibly make decisions that hurt america. Additionally, other world leaders will recognize the lack of knowledge and attempt to take advantage of that. (See president trump and Vladimir Putin)

4. McCain/Palin set up Trump/Pence for success because it created precedence for someone who is not really qualified to be president being in a position to potentially become president, as Sarah Palin was vice president and would be expected to become president if anything happened to her running-mate.

Game Change-Jake Urdangen

Game Change-Jake Urdangen

1.Why is political vetting so important?

The importance of political vetting is paramount to running a sturdy campaign of any sort. Understanding your personal from head to toe is essential to winning. The 2008 presidential race is a prime example why political vetting cannot be overlooked.

When the McCain campaign decided to not properly vet Sarah Palin they left a major gap in their defense. Many people in the political spectrum use Sarah Palin as a prime example of the true incompetence of some members of the American political world (congress and otherwise).

Political vetting  is the process of looking at background checks on people when they are hiring for a job, or in this situation running for office.

8. Compare Sarah Palin’s level of knowledge to that of Mike Pence or Donald Trump...is it a fair comparison?

Before watching the movie Game Changer, I didn’t know too much about Sarah Palin. Growing up in a liberal family, I was kind of taught to not really like her. I knew the background about her, that she was a nice lady with a disabled child. My parents always told me how ignorant she was, but I never really really let is soak all in.

Now after watching this movie, I believe that she may be one of the dumbest politicians in the history of politics. This movie I know was extremely accurate, and it shocks me that a governor running for vice president is so focused on Alaska. If you are running for vice president, you need to care about all 50 states, not just one. It was crazy that she didn’t know anything about foreign policies, and had to have all her speeches written up for her.

I would compare Donald Trump and Sarah Palin to each other because of their appearances. Both have very good looks, and are strong leaders. They are all talk, but scare the crap out of people. Trump obviously has much more knowledge than Palin because he actually got elected.

Game Change-Matthew Reynolds

1. Why is political vetting so important?

Vetting is important because it can point out a candidate’s weaknesses or when he/she have truly unconservative principles. The vetting process could be more important than the vote itself. It allows the general public to obtain a better of idea of who the candidates really are, what they stand for, and why they deserve votes. The vote is when the doctor comes back to the room with the results of your physical, the vetting is when the doctor examines, learns, and tests your body… the part that truly matters.

    2)   Does a POTUS or VPOTUS need to be highly knowledgeable about all issues associated with their offices or should they rely on the staffs?

It most definitely does not hurt for both the POTUS and VPOTUS to be knowledgeable about any questions they may be asked at any panel, conference, discussion, or debate, but the main purpose of a staff is to aid and provide their candidates. When a candidate is uninformed, it can easily be exposed like Palin was multiple times throughout the film. It was when she took the advice of her staff that she presented well to the public. Well informed candidates are definitely a benefit, but a great staff is a must.

Game Change- Griffin Gallas

Griffin’s Gov Movie Response

Q. Does a POTUS or a VPOTUS need to be highly knowledgeable about all issues associated with their offices or should they rely on the staffs to provide information to answer questions?

1. Both POTUS and VPOTUS should know an abundance about ALL political issues going on in this country. While campaigning, one’s goal is to convince American citizens that they are the right person for the job. If someone has no clue about something that has a large impact in this country then what that shows the potential voter is that they are not worthy of the position. *cough cough Betsy DeVos*

Q. Do you think that governors of certain states are more “qualified” or “knowledgeable” about national politics and foreign policy than others? For example, does Sarah Palin’s career as governor of Alaska make her too far removed from the epicenter of national political activity to be taken seriously?

1. Absolutely, there should be a lot taken into consideration when finding ANY potential politicians. Sarah Palin was a governor in a state that does not have very much going on. For some perspective Alaska’s population is roughly 800,000 people while illinois has 12,000,000 people. Obviously there are going to be a lot less problems going on is a smaller populated state resulting in an inexperienced governor.
   
   
   

Game Change Michael Barrera

Michael Barrera
Blog Post Game change

8.
Compare Sarah Palin's level knowledge to that of Mike Pence or Donald Trump.... is it a fair comparison?
They both present the same type of rhetoric. Trump and Palin presented fear mongering into people. This makes people want to vote for them because they hope these candidates will eliminate their fear. She mentions terrorism and the fact that Osama is a terrorist. This made people very angry and scared about terrorism so they will vote for Palin. Similarly, Trump installs fear into people by talking about Islam and banning them from America. They both have little knowledge about exactly what is happening in Afghanistan because not everyone is a terrorist and as Americans, we are interfering with their country and killing civilians as well. So who is the terrorist? But I think that Trump is gaining more knowledge about foreign policy as president. Palin comes from Alaska which has been very isolated the past 100 years until now because of technology. But she does not have much knowledge about certain topics because in the movie she was asked questions in the interview with Katie Couric.
7. I think that they needed Palin because she played a crucial role in obtaining certain votes. For example, early in the movie, the campaign manager mentions that Mccain does not have the votes of the women of America. Palin was important because she helped gain the votes of many women being the soccer mom she is. It was very interesting to see however when she transformed into a clout monster. Palin was power hungry and started to say whatever it took to get power. On multiple media platforms, she was asked specific questions that dealt with her opinion on certain topics, (abortion... etc) and she was trained by the campaigners to pivot questions. But before that, she was really bad in previous interviews. Game change was a really interesting movie to watch because we see the pressure candidates face.

cause it allows us to see what happens behind the scenes during a campaign and

Game Change - Ginger Haller

3. The POTUS and VPOTUS definitely need to be knowledgeable on all the issues associated with their office, as do all politicians. If they aren't aware of the issues and possible solutions then they aren't qualified for that job at all. If they just rely on their staff to inform them than they could be easily molded and not able to critically think about these issues themselves. They will just do what they are advised without really thinking about it.

4. During the McCain/Palin campaign people loved Sarah Palin because she was unlike many candidates that have come before her. She was a woman from Alaska who "hockey moms" could identify with, and she had charm and confidence when she gave speeches. This led her to become very popular, even tough she was not knowledgeable about foreign policy at all. This was similar to Donald Trump's campaign. He doesn't have any experience and doesn't seem very knowledgeable about some political issues, but he won because he was so confident and appealed to a certain group of Americans. The McCain/Palin campaign set up a system where people care more about popularity than knowledge and quality of the candidate.

Game Change - Ben Ellman

1. Political vetting is extremely important for a campaign to do on a candidate to ensure that the candidate aligns with what the campaign wants. If a politician has a checkered past, for example maybe they have been to prison, then the campaign may want to avoid picking that candidate. A campaign needs to ensure that their candidates are relatively clean of any scandals to ensure that the media or the opposing campaigns do not run smear campaigns against the candidates. For example, the Clinton Campaign most likely ran political vetting on Tim Kaine, and found out that he is clean with no scandals on his record. This helped to prevent any smear campaigns against him, while on the flip side many attacked Pence for his record of homophobic legislation and comments. Political vetting is necessary to ensure that candidates are properly checked for any negative behavior that will reflect poorly on the campaign as a whole.

4. Sarah Palin during 2008 was renowned for being an "outsider" to political campaigns in Washington. Many felt that she was much more trustworthy, even though she wasn't, and relatable because she put on the persona of a soccer mom, and not a career politician. Many Republican voters, and voters in general, were tired of career politicians, which they associated with lying and elitism. So, when Donald Trump came along, many voters gravitated for him because he was an outsider, and he played a persona where he was not part of the elite, despite being born into one of the richest families in America. Donald Trump played the part of an outsider, someone who was more trustworthy than the career politicians. He blamed them for creating problems, and asked "why should we trust career politicians to solve the problems they created?" Thus, people trusted him to solve their problems.