Game Change Motivates Scorecard Adjustments

For anyone interested in politics, Game Change is a must read.  Not because it mesmerizes with brilliance, but because it provides the detail needed to either validate or invalidate perceptions of each candidate during the 2008 Presidential election.

I was curious to know if I would have supported a different candidate if I knew all the gory details about each of them.  During the campaign I had a mental scorecard for each; a completely subjective measure of their strengths and weaknesses, and an overall ranking.  So with that in mind, and with Game Change in hand, I set out to test my intuition.

John Edwards lost every point I had graciously awarded him.  Even with the stupidity of the affair, I assumed he was in general, a good man with a big ego gone astray.  Though I didn't believe he was Presidential material, I didn't think he was an idiot who was completely out of touch with reality.  Now I do.

Elizabeth Edwards lost pretty much all of her points as well.  She wasn't a candidate, but she was very much in the public eye and had earned accolades and empathy from the press.  She and John deserved each other. 

Barack Obama is about where I had him.  A generally upstanding guy; is willing to play dirty but within limits; sometimes presses the boundary of those limits; very strong ego though he attempts to conceal it; a very good manager and problem solver.

Hillary is the only one who gained points.  The book humanized her.  She is more thoughtful and genuine than I had believed;  her perspective of the competing candidates is probably shared by a lot of people; while she clearly wanted to break the glass ceiling for women, she very much believed she was the most qualified person for the job.  On the minus side, she poorly managed her campaign and her husband--that's not a confidence builder considering the position she was seeking.  She clearly has faults, but overall she came out ahead.

John McCain lost points.  Whether or not it was intended by the authors, my takeaway is that he was unequivocally unqualified for the job.  His decision to add Palin to his ticket was flat out reckless.  He was willing to throw a hail Mary, and add her to his ticket knowing that his Vice Presidential pick was likely to be unqualified, and certainly had not been vetted.  This is NOT a quality I want in a President.   There were other pluses and minuses, but overall I was very disappointed by this man.

Sarah Palin lived up to my intuitive expectations. 

As for my scorecard:   If I had the advantage of knowing the gory details inside each campaign at the time, the scorecard would have been a little different, and I'd like to think I would have supported a different candidate.  And as for your scorecard?  Well, you'll have to read the book.