Posted on 06/07/2011 12:28:01 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A former Bushie got a sneak peak over the weekend and offered to tell us all about it. We took him up on it.
Matt Latimer, a former George W. Bush speechwriter, was invited to an advance screening of "The Undefeated" over the weekend. He provided the following observations to us.
******
The long-awaited merger of Sarah Palin and Harvard University at last has taken place. This was the first takeaway from my advance viewing of the new (and uncritical) Palin documentary, "The Undefeated," the latest in a line of populist-oriented films by its likable director Stephen Bannon. Ironically, the anti-elitist Bannon not only worked on Wall Street in his early life, but graduated with honors from Harvard Business School. For some reason, I doubt most of his professors will be lining up for tickets.
"The Undefeated" is not the movie Palin critics would have longed for. There is not a single reference to Levi Johnston, not a glimpse (or even defense) of the infamous Katie Couric interview, no appearance by any serious critic of Palin’s gubernatorial record, and not a word about Paul Revere. Nor, by the way, is the point ever made that the "undefeated" Palin was in fact defeated in the 2008 election. But the movie is earnest in offering those who are willing to take a second look at the beleaguered Alaskan. And, to his credit, Mr. Bannon, who spent $1 million on this film, does not hide his intentions. "I believe this is the leader we need," he said of Palin at the screening, perhaps unhelpfully adding that she recently had mispronounced his name.
So without further ado, my top takeaways from the film:
Matt Damon kicks sand in dead people’s faces. I am just getting comfortable in my chair when the screen suddenly fills with a montage of attacks on the former governor by Mr. Damon and about a dozen other celebrities (John Cleese calls her "a nice-looking parrot," David Letterman says she dresses like a "slutty flight attendant," I forgot what Rosie O’Donnell said, but whatever it was, she didn’t look good saying it). Then things take a truly vicious turn: Some nut paints a picture of Palin being crucified. Another idiot offers vulgarities about Palin and her newborn son, Trig. But that’s not the fun part. As the movie goes on, the attacks on Palin seamlessly segue into lions stalking and feasting on a defenseless zebra; an arrow protruding from the neck of a slain medieval archer; the most horrific car crash I’ve ever seen on film; a bridge (to nowhere?) collapsing; a man literally choking someone to death; a nuclear explosion; a volcano eruption; and, yes, sand being thrown onto the face of a nearly buried corpse. All that is missing is a depiction of Maureen Dowd taunting our dear Sarah while dancing the can-can with Osama bin Laden and setting the Constitution on fire.
Man, Alaska was a total mess. During most of the first hour, we are offered an education about pre-Palin Alaska and, folks, it ain’t pretty. Corrupt oil executives twirl their mustaches, legislators’ offices are raided every day by the Feds, cigar-chomping politicos in smoke-filled rooms rip off taxpayers. Specific Palin enemies -- like Sen. Lisa Murkowski and her father, the former governor -- are given the dreaded slow-motion treatment when they appear on-screen, as if their evil, corrupt ways impede them from normal movement. There is a service performed here, as it quickly became obvious why the state’s voters selected Palin in the first place. Everyone else in Alaska seems to have attended the Boss Hogg School of Good Government.
Believe it or not, Palin actually was a pretty good governor. Once upon a time, before Tina Fey, Katie Couric, "Saturday Night Live," the reality show, and her Twitter account, Sarah Palin was a political wonder: a mom who stood up -- and defeated – powerful members of her own party. Though a long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, even the New York Times favorably noted that Palin "first rose to prominence as a whistle-blower uncovering ethical misconduct in state government."
"The Undefeated" deftly uses local news footage to document this early, now largely forgotten image of Palin (and, yes, she always talked like that). See Palin, apparently single-handedly, enact historic ethics reform, cut state spending, and work with Democrats and the detestable "lamestream media" to pass long-sought laws tackling the corrupt practices of Big Oil (Exxon’s publicist is not going to like this film). Palin’s legitimately earned reformer reputation helped her garner a sustained approval rating of more than 80 percent in her state.
As I watch this, I suddenly realize something: Whatever came to pass later, Palin’s short, 18-month stint in Juneau was never adeptly explained or exploited during her introduction to a national audience. The moral: The McCain campaign was an even bigger disaster than I already had suspected.
Nancy Reagan was not a consultant on this film. A chunk of the movie makes the risky move of equating Palin with the GOP’s golden-haloed Ronald Reagan. Comparisons to the Gipper of course are a cliché in the party these days, but there are a few surface-level similarities between the Californian and the Alaskan. Both were alternately feared and mocked by the GOP establishment, which, in both cases, was heavily populated by Bush cronies. Both had a charismatic effect on the right and a demonic effect on the left. Both were occasionally fact-challenged. Both saw themselves as conservatives fighting the entrenched interests of Washington. And both had cojones, unlike some other people that could be mentioned ...
John Boehner is missing some manparts -- and he's not the only one. The film offers an interesting medical hypothesis for why Washington’s Republican establishment is so dull, gutless and dreary. They are all "eunuchs." None, for example, has the manhood to defend Palin when she comes under attack or to accomplish much else for that matter. As this is said, the camera flashes not only to Speaker Boehner, but also Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and George H. W. Bush. I don’t know Boehner nor was this a topic one sought to explore when I briefly worked for Sen. McConnell. As for Papa Bush’s lower regions, the charge unquestionably is specious. I know this because his boy, George W., reveals as much himself in his massively bestselling memoir "Decision Points." The author, in fact, devotes six lines in this work of history to a joke about his father’s "black testicles." (See Page 20. I don’t want to spoil it for you.)
And the biggest takeaway:
The Palin saga makes women weep. "The Undefeated" was tested before focus groups of liberals who, according to the filmmaker, almost uniformly came away with a greater appreciation of Palin. This was especially true of women. Two different people told me that a liberal producer at a major television network (it was not Fox News) left the movie in tears after "realizing" how badly Palin had been treated by the media. Like all cold-hearted men, I confess that I was not in tears. But it is clear from the outset that I am not the film’s target audience. The movie really is geared to women. There are repeated references to Palin's gender, how she’s been discriminated against because of her dress and looks, and there is even an image of a campaign button that reads "You Go, Girl." But I won’t be able to ascertain the film’s true impact until I see Joy Behar weeping on air about how terribly she’s wronged the governor. And somehow I just don’t see that coming ...
*****
Matt Latimer served as a senior speechwriter to Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor."
“I was a fan of Palin long before most of you knew she was alive. Then she quit. WTF?”
Old news friend....And if you were a true fan you would do due diligence in your research and would then understand why Governor Palin made the right decision to step down.....
I have and did. The msm bothers me here.
“Your angle helps everyone’s perspective. You could refocus if you so chose.”
After reading your other responses, you are not a Palin fan...Doubt you ever were......Go ahead and post your little witty response, but I don’t waste my time with folks like you.....Take care......
Your level of perception seems to be rather low this morning.
The best times financially for a lot of people was when Sarah Palin was Governor, as a local who has lived in Wasilla since 1994 I know her and have done business with them.
She was never a quitter, anyone still saying that had better be prepared to prove they are not a troll. And I really hope that if they are trolls they will be zotted, burned and buried.
Sarah Palin did not quit, if anything the rest of her life is dedicated to run those down one by one and expose them to the world what they are, even if it requires the position of POTUS.
But anyway times were good when Sarah ran Alaska, I bought two new vehicles and paid off my land and home. Its tougher now, people are tightening their belts, but we are not too bad off, no where near as bad as the lower 48.
And when Sarah Palin gets elected she will absolutely clean up all the corruption, so if you want a better leaner government vote for Sarah Palin, if you want a fat corrupted lazy corrupt government then just go join the local anti-Palin crowd.
You certainly didn’t do due diligence in your research if you can show up on FR and loudly not understand why Palin quit the Governorship.
Did your due diligence uncover the approximate amount of Palin’s legal costs or the number of baseless ethics cases outstanding against her?
If you don’t know these numbers, even approximately, you can’t claim to have carried out due diligence. You simply haven’t bothered to find out what was going on in a political situation about which you claim to be concerned. Instead you’ve decided to trumpet your ignorance on this thread.
Also: don’t answer posts with broken fragments of sentences that mean nothing. This appears to be your usual tactic when you don’t have anything to say.
Wasn’t this a Rock Hudson movie? A good Rock Hudson movie.
I call bullshit. If you were a fan of Sarah's you'd know why she resigned and the "WTF" would be unnecessary.
Are you related to pissant or are you pissant using a different screen name?
Pure snark. And the last paragraph devoted to woman hatred. Women cry at the Sarah Palin documentary and he laughs. There’s a reason some women cry; they know there is a global war on women - from the insane muslims in the east to the Democratic party in the West to the sexually neutered but rapacious Republican establishment. Every day I thank God I don’t have daughters!!
I was here before you. I will swap names again if the site allows it.
What’s a work in progress? Your research on Sarah Palin? Maybe you should think twice about posting bull s*** until that work is completed.
My research helped lead to her acceptance on this board. You people are so full of it.
South of Salt Lake City on I-15, there is a restaurant billboard quaintly misspelled “allmost”.
Mitt Romney territory.
Just saying. :)
You opened up a can of worms by coming here, using the F word and making a foolish, foolish statement without backing it up with facts. And tell us: just how did you personally bring acceptance to Sarah Palin “on this board”? I’m sure we all long to know.
Oh, and one more thing: as per usual, the snarkiest posters refuse to put up anything personal on their home page - even to including their state or country. I find this pathetically cowardly and more and more freepers are doing this.
I think putting up your state should be mandatory for posting; I’m sure I’m in the minority believing that, but I do notice the nastiest types refuse to put up any personal info.
Just tell me where my supposed ‘f’ word is first.
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