The American President: Still Relevant

Sixteen years after its release, "The American President" is still topical.  If it were released today,  it would be reflective of our current political landscape.

As a story, this has it all:  a well paced plot, a problematic love affair, dirty politics, ethical dilemmas, altruism vs practicality, etc.  Written by Aaron Sorkin who went on to adapt this as the great television series, "The West Wing", the movie has legs...good lookin' ones too!    

There are so many "moments" that resonate.  Here are two of the best. 

Scene set-up:  In order to placate his Right Wing opponents, hopefull improve his favorability ratings and smooth the way to re-election, the President decides to sacrifice an environmental bill his lobbyist girlfriend, Sydney Wade, has diligently worked to pass.  This decision comes after a lambasting from his political adviser played by Michael J. Fox.




Who is right?  I don't know but the dialog is great.  Somebody should have run and re-run this movie for the Obama Admin last year when they were taking the "high road" as it were.
 
Sydney learns of the renege on the part of her boyfriend, the President.  She breaks off their affair very succinctly. 

"Mr. President, you have bigger things to worry about than losing me.  You just lost my vote."   

Ouch! 

Scene Set-up:  The Prez delivers the speech we've all waited for; the speech his administrative advisors have begged him to unleash. 


Perhaps someone will suggest to the inner circle at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this film may be streamed any night on Netflix. 

Images We Won't Soon Forget

Woo Hoo!

If I were a dog, this is how excited I would be to see our new President, Barack Obama, sworn in and George Bush & Dick Cheney leaving.

Photo by: LME Images

Now the REAL Work Begins

Obama Wins Chicago Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak Nov 4, 2008

Nothing more to say than "I'm proud to be an American and I'm proud of my country."

McCain/Palin Ticket Nosedives Along With Economy

Wish I could say I am happy about all the Republicans tanking but...the economy is front and center and nobody is happy. We are, in fact, scared. These are scary times and I am glad my father, who would have been 98 this year, is not alive to see this. Dad lived through the Great Depression. He was not a child. He was working for Florsheim Shoes in downtown Chicago when the market crashed. He actually saw people hit the pavement outside his basement window in an office building. He never forgot the fear, the panic and the aftermath. Nobody who lived through those years forgot the aftermath. My mother-in-law, born in 1927, wore dresses made of flour sacks to school in Pennsylvania. She never forgot the humiliation.
My ability to relate to the Depression is through the stories of my relatives , photographs and books such as The Grapes of Wrath and Dorothea Lange photographs. The candidates studiously avoided characterizing the economic free fall we are in with the word "depression". They didn't even want to use the word "recession" although too late for that.
What I want to know is, who's going to be made accountable for this mess? We all know who is going to pay for it...we are. But where is the accountability? I mean, when you have CEOs appearing before Congress, such as the $186+ million dollar compensated CEO of Lehman Bros, Richard Fuld, wanting to know "where's our bailout?" without so much as an apology, you know we are getting screwed, blued and tattooed...and not in a good way.
Unless we, as tax payers, demand accountability and recompense for this debacle, we are going to watch our country become insolvent, our assets diminish and disappear and mortgage our children and grandchildren's future for some time to come.

I Don't Know What to Think

I watched the debate last night til I could stand it no more. My take, overall, was this: McCain was able to corner and bully Obama by repeatedly going on the attack, talking over his responses to the attacks, and belittling Obama for his "naivete" and lack of understanding (aka "experience"). I was devastated.

Do I buy into what McCain had to say? Hell no! But, do I buy into the American people buying into what McCain had to say? Hell yes! I'm in advertising, remember? It's not what you say, it's how you say it, how often you say it, and how receptive (or dumb) the audience.

Obama certainly came off as the more reasonable of the two. He showed incredible restraint against increasingly vitriolic accusations about his record on all fronts. I would have liked to have seen more passion, less restraint and more offense, less defense.

Keith Olbermann, God love him, thought Obama won. Mr. O & the rest of his MSNBC cohorts, including Pat Buchanan, thought Obama's show of restraint, grace and composure, contrasted sharply with the surly attack dog tactics of MCain. Several of them, including Buchanan (!) went so far as to suggest that McCain's pugnacious stances are exactly what America wants to get away from...more of the same of the past 8 years.

I hope to heaven they are right but, I just don't know.

"Guyland" or Why My Sons don't Wanna Grow Up

I am reminded of "I Won't Grow Up" song from Peter Pan, the musical. I sang this song on stage at the age of four or five (not sure) during a recital. I still know the words:

I won't grow up
I don't wanna go to school
Just to learn to be a parrot
and recite a silly rule

If growing up means it would be
Beneath my dignity to climb a tree
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow uuuupp!
Not me. Not I. Not me.

I won't grow up
I don't wanna wear a tie
or a serious expression
in the middle of July.

And if it means I must prepare
to shoulder burdens with a worried air
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow uuupp
Not me. Not I. Not me. So there!


Never gonna be a man
I won't.
Like to see somebody try
and make me
Anyone who wants to try
and make me turn into a man...
catch me if you can!

I won't grow up
Not a penny will I pinch
I will never grow a mustache
Or a fraction of an inch!

Cuz growing up is awfuler
than all the awful things that ever were
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow uupp!
No sir!

What strikes me about this video and the accompanying article which you can read if you double click my post title, is how true this study and appraisal of young men seems to be, at least to me.

Our boys are now 20 & 21. They are both in college; one after a false start last Fall. The elder should have completed his Junior year last Spring but didn't want to take a full load. He's still 10 credits short. He doesn't ask for money though. He's working to support himself waiting tables.They are both partyers and neither knows what they want to be when they graduate although the younger one is pretty sure he wants to own his own business and "be rich." I know the feeling.

Many but certainly not all of our friends have sons with varying degrees of similarities in their confusion and their belief they can just get by. None of us understands this and none of us knows how to help. Maybe that is the problem. What we are trying to do and have to learn to do is let go. We have to let go and let them find out for themselves what the world is about.

I listened with rapt attention to Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night. One of his remarks had to do with "accepting responsibility" for who we are and where we are headed. I immediately thought of my sons and wondered when this will happen.

Then I thought of the song, my recital and most of all, Mary Martin.

It's Joe

Well, the suspense is over. On to the Democratic convention...