About that whole ’spreading the wealth’ thing - thanks to Bob Cesca for reminding us of this brilliant West Wing clip:
I tell ya, watching The West Wing after absorbing oneself in this election is really quite surreal. I’ve picked up on my WW viewing this week - I’d got as far as Season 6, episode 5 - and suddenly, I instantly ‘get’ aspects of it I’d never fully - or quickly - got before (all the intricate discussions of Primaries, for example). Even watching the clip above after seeing several live, real debates suddenly makes more sense.
So now you know what I’ll have to do, of course: watch til the end of Season 7… and then go all the way back to the beginning again. Doh!
Don’t wet yourself, West Wing fans. But Aaron Sorkin has penned a conversation between President Jed Bartlet and wannabe president Barack Obama.
He wrote it for Maureen Dowd at the New York Times, it touches on elitism (after I wrote this West Wing-referencing post!), and you can read it here.
(Favourite line? “I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage”. Followed closely by: “Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?”)
…as pointed out in a gag in Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s opening sketch from Saturday Night Live on, erm, Saturday (see, I knew I could find an excuse to get this in the blog. It’s great):
The idea that anybody can become President of the United States is, of course, one of the most-cited examples of ‘the American Dream’ - and when Obama won the nomination, I remember one American news reporter saying pretty much that. That he was proof that anybody can become President.
But here’s the thing: he’s not. Because while I obviously get the inference that it is a race which is open to all, to say that just anyone can achieve what Obama has achieved - and could potentially achieve - isn’t true. Not anyone could do it. I was about to say that only very intelligent, hard-working, talented, driven people can do it - but then Sarah Palin came along and screwed that one up. Actually, Dubya screwed it up… But at least they both have the ‘drive’ part, eh?
I’m reminded of that great line in The Incredibles, when the mother says to the son: “Everybody’s special”. To which the son replies: “That’s just another way of saying no one is”.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden aren’t just ‘anyone’. They are both incredibly smart, talented, wise, charismatic, dedicated, pragmatic men who aren’t driven by ego alone or by the pursuit of power for its own sake. And when the best that the Republicans can find in the whole country is John McCain and Sarah Palin, well… put it this way: it makes me proud to be a lily-livered, bleeding heart, liberal egghead communist. As our friend Jed Bartlett would say.
G.BUSH AND CREW WERE THE BUCHERS OF NEW YORK IRAQ AND AFGANISTAN WHICH IS FACT SO LIVE WITH IT OIL OIL OIL HERE WE COME: MILLIONS OF MUSLIM DIED IN THE
