Game Change: Was Sarah Palin Worth the Risk? (Watch the Big Think Interview with Screenwriter Danny Strong)

Danny Strong appeared LIVE on Big Think the day before the premiere of his controversial new HBO film Game Change, which dramatizes the decision by the McCain campaign to add Sarah Palin to the ticket in 2008. 

In the video below, we explored some of the major lessons that can be drawn from Strong’s film. These include risk-taking and decision making. 

For instance, on one scene McCain’s strategist Steve Schmidt, played by Woody Harrelson, says he’d rather take a big risk to win, and possibly lose the election by 10 points, as opposed to playing it safe and losing by one point. The McCain team, of course, chose to take the risk which also had the biggest upside, and that meant filling the presidential ticket with the addition of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. 

In this context, was Sarah Palin worth the risk? And what does this story tell us about our threshold for risk in business and in life?

Watch the video here:

Game Change premieres tonight on HBO at 9pm EST. 

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