Hot Air did a terrific job at dissecting a segment on GMA with George Stephanopoulos and Nicolle Wallace which aired on September 28th.

In reporting on the current presidential race, host David Muir played a clip from Game Change and commented on it:

DAVID MUIR: But so much of it rests with the candidate. The HBO film “Game Change,” strategist Nicolle Wallace is depicted trying to help Sarah Palin prepare for interviews in a debate on the national stage.

JULIANNE MOORE (as Sarah Palin): It wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t properly prepped!

SARAH PAULSON (as Nicolle Wallace): You weren’t properly prepped because you wouldn’t listen to us. You never listened to your advisers!

MUIR: Takes you back, doesn’t it? A lot at stake this time. President Obama looking to lock in his lead. And for Romney, many political strategists arguing this first debate will be make-or-break as George pointed out given the poll numbers in those key battlegrounds. George

As Hot Air’s Matt Vespa describes, it’s ridiculous for ABC to use this fiction in attempting to have an honest discussion about the current race:

What’s so egregious about this frivolous example is that it’s based on an adapted screenplay.  Furthermore, that clip featured in the segment is fictional.  Yes, Sarah Palin didn’t have the best interview with Katie Couric, but what Wallace and Palin said to each other in private remains that way. The only folks who know what was said were those two women and Wallace had every reason to embellish the exchange to make herself look good.

The real Nicolle Wallace was then brought in to talk about the upcoming debates, which was a nice spring board for both Stephanopoulos and Wallace to rip into Mitt Romney:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You talk about President Obama as nicer and less arrogant. He does get irritable in the debates, and that’s what his team is prepping him for, they want him to stay kind of patient.

NICOLE WALLACE: Right. Right. And just think about that for a second. They’re asking both men to be someone they’re not, and that’s what makes the debate so dramatic. Because, really what we’re all waiting for, what we’re all watching for is the moment when the real man breaks out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But more pressure on Mitt Romney in this debate. If you could say, what his number one goal for this debate, it is?

WALLACE: Romney needs to have a moment like we saw this week, when Bill Clinton introduced him, and he had this self-deprecating, humorous, normal moment where his humanity shown through. He needs try to do the impossible. He needs to orchestrate a moment where he can create that in a way that seems and feels spontaneous and natural. Near impossible.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s very hard. Nicolle Wallace, thank you very much.

Mr. Vespa summarizes beautifully:

So let’s review: We have a former Clinton operative drooling over the president and labeling him as “nicer and less arrogant,” while a squishy Republican — who was a major source in a campaign book and later movie that cast Palin in a harsh light — agrees and says Romney needs to be more human in these debates.

In addition to Nicolle Wallace’s subtle remarks on Romney, her old pal Steve Schmidt is highlighted in an article over at The Daily Beast where once again, Governor Palin is slammed and mentioned just as Game Change is endorsed.  The only problem is, Schmidt uses his platform to question Romney as well:

Rarely in modern campaign history has a presidential nominee gone through such a disastrous stretch, a “very bad run,” as Schmidt puts it, that stretches back to “the moment of the empty chair” during Clint Eastwood’s convention routine.

So now even Romney is becoming a target of the same folks who’ve been trashing Governor Palin since 2008.  It takes one back to the interview Governor Palin did with Oprah.  She described how many of the advisers had to pack their own parachutes.  Notice how Wallace and Schmidt are both frequenting liberal hangouts like MSNBC or ABC to give their own “analysis” of the current race.  We also see how their words seem to be music to the ears of the Obama-loving hosts of these shows.  It matters not to Wallace or to Schmidt if Obama is fired in 2012.  They care about their careers, or what’s left of them.

Problems like Schmidt and Wallace were tolerated by the GOP establishment in the case of an inconvenient reformer like Governor Palin.  This explains why the smears have only made her stronger. But now that the two failed advisers are moving on to exploit other parts of the tent once thought to be safe by the GOP establishment, perhaps we’ll see some political karma begin to play out.