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Her national lead is down to 3.9, his lead in LA Times is now up to 3%, and she's only leading by 1% in both Reuters and IBD. The graphics for the RCP Average shows Trump slowly trending upwards, while Hillary takes an abrupt nose dive.

Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin B. Smith and Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief Matthew Winkler today announced Bloomberg Politics – the first in series of new digital-led, multi-platform brands that will live across all Bloomberg platforms. In March, Bloomberg announced a new, broad strategy for consumer media properties, including the development of new digital assets and a multi-platform approach. Bloomberg Politics, the first of the brands being launched under this new direction, will be created, launched, and overseen by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, who will also lead political coverage across all Bloomberg platforms – Web, mobile, television, digital video, print magazines,...

... Julianne Moore won an award for playing Sarah Palin in Game Change, because of course she did. And then, apparently, the director of the movie was gushing about how “brave” she was for doing that. That’s right: Daring to depict Sarah Palin in an unflattering light is an act of bravery. In Hollywood.

Mitt Romney on Wednesday night turned in the finest debate performance of any candidate of either party in the 52 years since Richard Nixon faced John F. Kennedy, with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan's demolition of Jimmy Carter in 1980. But where Reagan won with style and quips -- "There you go again" -- and his closing line, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Romney crushed Obama on both substance and style. Mitt was like a contender so keyed up by his title shot that, between rounds, he could not sit on his stool,...

Forget the polls, forget the focus groups, forget the media. What is occurring in the campaign of 2012 is simplicity itself: Barack Obama has lost the mandate of heaven.**snip A failing Chinese monarch would easily recognize Obama's current situation. Everything has started going wrong at once. Things that used to work work no longer. Plans, arrangements, allies seem to fade into the mist, tools break, weapons turn on their owners. Every light is red, every parade gets rained on. Libya and Egypt are simply the latest manifestations (and they aren't over yet -- does anybody really think that al-Q is...

Politics didn’t escape Sunday night’s Emmy Awards in Hollywood. Actress Julianne Moore, upon accepting her Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her depiction of Sarah Palin in HBO’s “Game Change,” told the crowd: “Wow. I feel so validated because Sarah Palin gave me a big thumbs down.” (Palin was a frequent critic of the film, which focused on the McCain/Palin ticket in 2008.)

Earlier this month, the U.S. Embassy in Singapore held a screening of HBO's hyper-partisan, poorly sourced "Game Change" feature as a way to show how the American electoral process works. SarahPAC, former Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee, decided to provide the Embassy and its staffers with a more instructive, and factual, example of democracy in action. The organization has sent a letter to Ambassador David Adelman, along with a screener of the Palin documentary "The Undefeated." "The Undefeated," the letter says, includes people speaking on the record about a maverick politician who helped changed the way her state ran.

Some conservatives speak volumes as they try to pillory Steve Schmidt, the strategist who helped run John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and lately has been getting attention thanks to Woody Harrelson's portrayal of him in the movie, "Game Change."Pay a visit to Conservatives4Palin.com. There, you'll find everything critical about Schmidt. There's a link to a Washington Times piece that denounces him as "a longtime loser," and a broadcast by an angry New York-based radio talk show host, Mark Levin. "Steve you're quite the punk. You really are a punk," Levin said, incensed that Schmidt would dare to belittle McCain's vice...

From watching “Game Change,” this much is clear: (1) Steve Schmidt is an absolutely brilliant campaign strategist who gave Sen. John McCain the idea to put “Country First” (it had never occurred to the war hero); and (2) Nicolle Wallace is a demure, yet quietly ingenious, media savant who can handle any crisis. Oh, but wait: Mr. Schmidt ran one of the worst campaigns in the history of presidential elections, losing to a first-term senator from Illinois with no experience governing anything, and Ms. Wallace let the entire message of the McCain campaign be overrun by — “Saturday Night Live”?...

As reality began to sink in to the losing McCain presidential campaign in late October 2008, a senior communications adviser, Brian Jones, sent out a comprehensive strategic memo seeking to protect campaign manager Steve Schmidt‘s reputation, the central figure in the HBO political drama Game Change, Politico’s Maggie Haberman reports. “A week out from the election, named and unnamed sources are beginning to pin some of the blame for McCain’s likely defeat on Steve Schmidt,” Jones wrote in the memo. “Thankfully, and rightfully so, some members of the political punditry are already coming to his defense (Rove, McKinnon, Scarborough), however...

Nostalgia, Webster’s tells us, is a “wistful or sentimental longing for places, things, acquaintances or conditions belonging to the past.” For Barack Obama, nostalgia means turning the clock back to 2008, when the big crowds swooned and the gauzy promises of Hope & Change hadn’t yet crashed into the realities of war, high unemployment and soaring gas prices. Despite complaints that it doesn’t have a vision for a second term, the president’s re-election team really does — you just need a rearview mirror to see it. Judging from the slant of its advertising, fund-raising and Hollywood helpers, Team Obama believes...

Ten days before the 2008 presidential election, as blame was beginning to be laid out for John McCain’s “likely defeat,” a top communications adviser to the campaign wrote a detailed strategy memo focused on how to preserve the reputation of another key adviser, Steve Schmidt, POLITICO has learned. *** The protective maneuver sheds more light on the final days of the 2008 campaign, a period of low morale marked by tensions between the Palin and McCain camps and the expectation of defeat. *** “Thankfully, and rightfully so, some members of the political punditry are already coming his defense (Rove, McKinnon,...

There are over 300 million people in America. Barack Obama attracted nearly 70 million votes in 2008. HBO has almost 30 million subscribers. And yet... Less than 10% of those subscribers bothered to tune into one of the most hyped movies in the history of television. Glitzy, glamorous premieres, all kinds of free publicity through the cable news outlets, controversy galore, and yet "Pawn Stars" kicked its ass. Washington Post: One massive marketing and GOP-undies-bunching campaign later, the unveiling of HBO’s Sarah Palin flick, “Game Change,” attracted 2.123 million viewers Saturday night at 9. HBO says “Game Change” brought in the...

At Circo, following HBO’s “Game Change,” an operative involved in Sarah Palin’s heady VP-maybe days, said: “There are inaccuracies. Julianne Moore as Sarah saying she won’t stand on the stage with anyone who was pro-choice? Please. I was on Sarah’s plane.......

On the tail of Game Change‘s premiere on HBO, former McCain/Palin adviser Nicolle Wallace, prominently featured in the film, visited Rachel Maddow tonight to expand upon the lessons of the 2008 campaign, and made clear that she felt fairly guilty about working to make someone “fundamentally unprepared and unsuited for the job” the Vice President of the United States. Wallace noted that she was still in shock as to “how close we came to having somebody a heartbeat away from the presidency so fundamentally unprepared and unsuited for the job,” adding that, while she thought tossing around the term “PTSD”...

Over the weekend, HBO ran "Game Change," the film documenting the McCain campaign decision to put Sarah Palin on the ticket in the 2008 election. Opposite of this was the film "The Undefeated," a pro-Palin documentary trumpeting her accomplishments. Watching both, you'd think they were talking about two completely different people. "Game Change" was based upon a book about the 2008 election by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, published two years ago. It shows ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as an earnest, warm character, even sympathetic in many respects. It also showed that she was way over her head, lacking basic...

Audio from Marks show this evening perfectly summing up who Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace are. They earn their living, since losing the McCain campaign, trashing Sarah Palin 24/7. Runs about 4 minutes.

<p>Famous liberal Woody Harrelson says he was surprised to find that he liked Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who he plays in the HBO movie "Game Change," opposite Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin.</p> <p>"I wouldn’t imagine myself wanting to have anything to do with [Schmidt], but I really found myself liking him," Harrelson tells the April issue of Men's Journal. "He’s a political animal, but I feel like he’s an idealist and not bogged down in all the bullshit. Let’s face it. Obama was a phenomenon. They knew they were going to get beat, so choosing Palin was just a Hail Mary pass. It was just a wild idea."</p>

HBO director Jay Roach and screenwriter Danny Strong spent millions of dollars and cast some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in an unparalleled effort to dispel the widespread misperception that John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign was a well-oiled machine. Game Change, the HBO movie airing on Saturday, is based on a book of the same name, written by John Heilemann of New York magazine and Mark Halperin of Time. If you are a fan of Sarah Palin, you will loathe this movie. If you hate Sarah Palin, large swaths of this movie will be more thrilling than pornography. If you are...

HBO's new film "Game Change" is thoroughly sourced, fair and balanced. It humanizes former Gov. Sarah Palin while letting even Democratic viewers get to know the woman behind the headlines. Balderdash. Big Hollywood has been tracking the film for some time, debunking its obvious lies and shredding HBO's pitiful defense of what is a politically motivated hatchet job. HBO has every right to create any kind of programming it wishes. And responsible media outlets have a duty to let viewers know when a film bears very little resemblance to the truth.