The 'Game Change' quiz | The State

"Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime," by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, sold out quickly at Midlands booksellers. But new copies of the insider story of the 2008 presidential election were trickling in early last week.

The book is controversial. As it says in its introduction, much of the book is based on 300 interviews with 200 people conducted on "deep background," meaning the sources were not identified. As a result, there have been more than a few resulting cries of cheap shots, not fair, tawdry, yellow, etc.

Still, The Buzz found some of it just fun - even if it requires a few hundred grains of salt.

Today's quiz is based on the stories contained in "Game Change" about South Carolina and South Carolinians.

The Dems

1. What political wife called her husband a "hick" and his parents rednecks?

A. Hillary Clinton

B. Elizabeth Edwards

2. When the Rielle Hunter story exploded in the National Enquirer, Democrat John Edwards denied the affair, saying, "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years, and as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known." Where was Edwards when he made that statement?

A. Maurice's in West Columbia

B. A barbecue joint in Summerton

C. His hometown of Seneca

3. After Hillary Clinton lost in Iowa but won in New Hampshire, only one major adviser suggested she contest the S.C. primary. Other advisers said the Palmetto State was a lost cause, in part because 50 percent of Democratic voters were expected to be African-Americans. Who was the holdout to fight in South Carolina?

A. Bill Clinton

B. Pollster Mark Penn

C. Then-campaign chief Patti Solis Doyle

4. In their Jan. 21, 2008, debate in Myrtle Beach, Obama accused Clinton of representing the interests of corporate America (as a board member at Wal-Mart), accused Bill Clinton of misrepresenting Obama's opposition to the Iraq war and Obama's statements about Ronald Reagan's influence on America, and said he felt like he was running against Bill, not Hillary. Hillary Clinton accused Obama of lawyering for a Chicago slumlord. The debate became known as:

A. The War by the Shore

B. The Brawl at the Beach

C. Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places

5. The book's chapter on the S.C. Democratic Primary is entitled:

A. The War by the Shore

B. The Battle at the Beach

C. Fear and Loathing in the Lizard's Thicket

6. At one point during the S.C. primary, the Obama campaign dispatched surrogates to shadow former President Clinton as he traveled the state on his wife's behalf. One of those surrogates compared Clinton to flamethrowing GOP political consultant Lee Atwater. The surrogate is described in the book as "volatile, unpredictable, messy - a human IED." Who was the surrogate?

A. U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn

B. State Sen. Robert Ford of Charleston

C. Former S.C. Democratic party chairman Dick Harpootlian of Columbia

7. Which of the following did Bill Clinton say while wandering the state?

A. In Charleston - "Harpootlian calls me Lee Atwater. ... He doesn't care what happened. He just knows he can tell you a name and you guys (the media) will cover it. ... Shame on you!"

B. In Lexington - "I feel like a little scrambled egg. ... When I was running, I didn't give a rip what anybody said about me. It's weird, you know, but if you love somebody and you think that they'd be good, it's harder."

C. In Columbia - "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign."

D. All of the above.

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The GOP

8. As one of the most influential advisers to GOP presidential nominee John McCain, he opposed a proposal that McCain pledge to serve only one term if elected. He also was the biggest advocate of McCain choosing Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman as his vice-presidential pick, a possibility that died when he - "and his Biden-like loose lips" - floated the idea of a pro-choice veep on the Republican ticket. Who is he?

A. U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint

B. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham

C. U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson

9. After the 2000 primary, she "was uncomfortable every moment she spent on the ground' in South Carolina. Who is she?

A. Elizabeth Edwards

B. Hillary Clinton

C. Cindy McCain

10. On the campaign trail, they were known to McCain staffers as the "3 Amigos." Who were they?

A. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman

B. John and Cindy McCain, and Graham

C. McCain, Graham and Jim DeMint

11. A favorite pastime of the Amigos was watching the YouTube video - set to the music "I Feel Pretty" - of what pol fixing his hair?

A. Bill Clinton

B. John Edwards

C. Graham

12. After Sarah Palin was named as McCain's veep choice, this S.C. political operative was hired to staff her campaign after he sent an unsolicited e-mail to a McCain staffer with ideas about how to put forward the Alaska governor. Who is he?

A. Tucker Eskew

B. Terry Sullivan

C. Warren Tompkins

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The answers

1. B - Edwards was born in Seneca.

2. B.

3. A. "I gotta go to churches. I gotta campaign hard. I think I can do it," the former president said of the S.C. primary. "You can't win if you don't compete. ... I'm going." (Hillary Clinton lost the state to Obama in a landslide.)

4. B. The authors say S.C. politics, in general, are "wide open and down and dirty. Anything went, and everything always somehow boiled down to race."

5. C.

6. C. Obama embraced Harpo at one point and said, "You're a crazy (expletive deleted)."

7. D. "It would take 10 Freudians to explain what Bill Clinton did to Hillary in South Carolina," one Clinton said later, musing the former president subconsciously did not want his wife to win and sabotaged her campaign.

8. B. Like Edwards, Graham was born in Seneca.

9. C.

10. B.

11. B. "Let's look at it again!" McCain would command, according to the book.

12. A. Eskew receives only one mention; when he was hired to help Palin, who is widely trashed in the book.