This will reopen the national disgrace of Palin’s glaring unfitness for office, and thus, irresponsible and negligent behavior by McCain and his staff for not properly vetting her before choosing her as VP on the ticket. Kudos for HBO – which has a long track record for producing fact-based dramas and relevant programming which have won more Emmys than any other network – for reminding us during this election year of our responsibility to beware of candidates so inept and woefully unprepared to run for national command office.

“Game Change,” based on the 2010 book of the same name by journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, has been vouched for accuracy by McCain’s very own strategist, Schmidt himself, and by chief ’08 Palin aide Nicole Wallace. Also, Chris Edwards, one of Palin’s ‘08 campaign staffers, served as a technical advisor to the HBO filmmakers.

But ardent Palin supporters (why in the world are there any?) will choose once again to ignore obvious truths about Palin who has already dismissed this film with her usual paranoid response to media bashing: “Here they go again!” May they never stop “going again” if it exposes Palin’s continued ineptness for public office or even as a national spokesperson to satisfy her power ego. Parroting conservative dogma, never offering a single original thought, and simply tearing down the opposition for its own sake does not make a credible candidate for any office or job including parking cars or cleaning kennels.

John McCain’s “Country First” campaign motto was a shameful, utter lie. McCain knew he could never win the presidency with yawn-boring old suits like Romney or Huckabee for his VP, and wanted American voters to think he was making a bold, new-generational move to thwart the Obama Express by picking much younger, female, unknown Palin. The fact he hardly vetted her clearly shows how shallow and manipulative his decision was, and how desperate his staff was to find an atypical running mate and shake things up. Schmidt has admitted, “My judgment was influenced by ambition to win the race.”

If McCain had known that silly Sarah was so intellectually challenged she would inanely claim that the proximity of Alaska to the Russian border gave her foreign policy expertise, or that the Queen of England was the head of the British government, would he still have picked her if she guaranteed him a win? Absolutely! You bet he would have, because all John McCain wanted was to become president at absolutely any cost, including the unacceptable cost to our nation’s well-being. Given McCain’s age of 72 (in 2008) and his history of heart trouble, Palin as president was a very possible disaster nightmare for our country and the world. Even if McCain cringed at thoughts of her possible succession (as surely he must have now that we know the real story), his megalomania for power at any cost ruled the day. “Country First” my butt! That was blatant “Country Last—JOHN FIRST!”

Besides Palin’s frighteningly huge gaps of basic intellect awareness, proven repeatedly in national interviews, the book and film reveal that senior campaign aides were alarmed by her behind-the-scenes emotional outbursts, and were horrified to discover she was at times “catatonic” and possibly mentally unstable. Schmidt said of this film, “That is the story of what happened; it tells the truth of the campaign.” The consensus among McCain ’08 aides is that picking Palin was a terrible mistake. Schmidt agrees, “The result was the VP nomination of someone who was fundamentally not qualified. I have great regret over that.” So does America, Steve.

Proving once again his own ineptness of judgment and repudiation of the obvious truth, cowardly McCain recently declared: “It will be a cold day in Gila Bend, Arizona, before I watch that movie.” Yes, John, continue your shame of denial for not vetting Palin…as a supposed patriot. For the rest of America, and Gila Bend…don’t miss this important HBO film!

(Some of this text is excerpted from my memoir KISS ME QUICK BEFORE I SHOOT. Quotes and film facts are from the Los Angeles Times story on “Game Change” written by James Rainey on 2/18/12. Photo by Philip Caruso, HBO)

Do candidates really believe we will never catch their lies and double-talks? Caught red-handed with accepting $30,000 in Fed funds, Bachmann ridiculously justified that the money was used by her husband’s counseling clinic to help his employees get training and did not directly benefit her?  Hello? That’s a valid answer? But that’s exactly whom these  Federal funds were supposed to assist. Her hubbie’s clinic was more than happy to use the Fed training money that she abhors publicly? More gobbledygook?

Farm subsidies? Bachmann says the family farm is owned by her in-laws (not herself) so that’s OK for them to receive the $260,000 Fed subsidies she is railing against? Is she that dishonest? Her financials revealed a six-figure income from that same “in-laws owned” farm. Is she mentally challenged or does she think we are? More gobbledygook? Don’t her supporters see or care to see her glaring hypocrisies and outright lies?

When confronted with these moronic statements, Bachmann panics and hides behind religion exclaiming she’s a Christian and that God steers her political course. What? She now thinks religious people are stupid? Michele, please don’t blame God for your irrational behavior. Even conservative newscaster Chris Wallace asked her on a recent interview if she was a flake. I’m pretty sure God doesn’t like flakes who outright lie. How much hypocrisy can we allow? Who would wish to elect a true flake as our leader? The ’08 Palin close call was not enough to terrify us? Why do we set so low a bar? How did we get here in America? Even tea baggers are smart enough to see these lying irrational explanations. Aren’t they? They MUST be!

And the most promising, wise, intelligent, rational GOP candidate with the proper experience to be president, Jon Huntsman, is not even being considered because he is too…too…well, too intelligent and rational and fair-minded for the baggers to support. They can’t back him because he believes in something as outrageous to them as…as…evolution? They prefer a numbskull and lying Bachmann over a bright and rational Huntsman as a presidential candidate? Crazy? Insanity? It must be an election year! Gobbledygook!

I love my country and I just have to speak out. And yes I know politicians are not presently on anyone’s happy list, but this one is truly a bottom feeder we need to make sure never fools us again.

In recent U.S. history  – say the last century - has there been a bigger loser, a bigger numbskull than the ex-governor of Illinois: Rod Blagojevich? When this guy got caught red-handed trying to “sell Obama’s senate seat” vacated when he won the presidency, he kept saying over and over he did nothing wrong, and when the facts come out, he will be found absolutely innocent. He even talked “the Donald” (another genius but don’t get me started!) into this assumption of innocence when he was flailing his mediocrity on Celebrity Apprentice. He proved to be the biggest mentally-challenged useless player in reality game show history! And that’s saying a lot! He should be a regular on WIPEOUT…would love to see him get clobbered weekly rather than do time in jail!

So now, he was just convicted of 17 (that’s SEVENTEEN) counts of corruption including trying to sell that very same Obama senate seat. What happened, Rod? The papers reported he was “stunned” by these convictions. This guy is so spaced, he believes that no matter how corrupt he was, it’s OK if you’re a governor?  He really thinks he can get away with anything, any lie, and that we’re all stupid enough to believe him…and that he can be as immoral as he wants? He has in the past…he got elected TWICE in Illinois. How is this possible? How can they be so careless in Illinois? How can we be in any state in America?

Earth to Rod…two trials and SEVENTEEN COUNTS, bro! Maybe after 10 years in jail you’ll finally GET IT. It’s not us, ROD…it’s YOU! You are GUILTYYY! You did wrong! You’re a crook!

We need to be much more vigilant and prudent in choosing (voting) our politicians from all parties. We cannot and should not vote for the bottom of the barrel candidates. We should find and demand our best and brightest to run to run our country and represent us in an increasingly complex world?

Let’s at least do our part and raise the bar: no more Rods! No more Arnolds! No more Jesses! And especially, no more candidates like Christine who promised us she was not a witch? No more Sarahs…ever again please! Only the brightest need apply for political office…and yes from all parties! Why is that so difficult for us? Don’t we deserve great smart moral (as in non-lying) leadership?

Mitt Romney recently said that “he” was out of work just like unemployed folks, and of course blamed Obama for his jobless financial hardship. How immoral  is that statement? How big of a lie to us the idiot electorate? Mitt is worth $250 million…1/4 billionaires do NOT look for work…or work any job for that matter…unless it is a super ego job like a governorship or presidency that provides top quality “power heroin” better than any bank account. Why else would he spend $35 million in his 2008 campaign run, and probably double that if he becomes the Republican candidate…for  a job that pays $400K per year?

And the new hottie Rick Perry? Well, every report I’ve heard says this guy is nowhere near as “bright” as the last genius out of the Texan governorship: good ole George. And he’s the “new hope” to unite the Tea Party? Do you see what I’m sayin’?

All I ask is for our elected officials to be as bright as possible and with a steel moral compass so they can be rational and fair in representing all of us. Regardless of your politics, I’m sure we can agree at the very least that President Obama is a very bright guy and we can trust his morality which includes his compassion, and yes I voted for him and will again for those 2 reasons. But has the horrendously harsh media scrutiny of our elective process scared off our brightest and most talented to run for office? Only the egomaniacs (Donald!) and crap for brains (Michele B!) are willing? If so, how sad for America.