The liberal entertainment crowd mixed with liberal Washington elites last night in DC to preview the HBO movie "Game Change" that focuses on the McCain-Palin campaign of 2008. The Washington Post sent reporters to cover the event, and the Post story today included this observation:
"Why dramatize those events?
To help us make sense of the nonsensical? To merely amuse ourselves with the highlights of a heyday? To fashion a moral out of a morass?
'It allows us to ask questions that are profound to society,' said Strong, the screenwriter. 'Should celebrity and charisma be a deciding factor in choosing our leaders?'The film’s answer is “no,” and this moral seemed well received by audience members, who, in unscientific exit polls, gave “Game Change” a thumbs-up." http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/game-change-premiere-lets-washington-insiders-relive-drama-of-election-2008/2012/03/08/gIQAvRtS1R_story.html
So the screenwriter apparently thought the key message to be shared with the HBO viewers is that "celebrity and charisma" should not be deciding factors in choosing our leaders. Then how does that explain the election of Barack Obama as President? What did he have to offer to voters in 2008 other than "celebrity and charisma"? He had no extensive list of accomplishments in his political life.
Obama had been a US Senator for only four years when he was elected to the Presidency and most of those four years were spent campaigning for President. It has been reported frequently that people in the crowds at Obama rallies have fainted from the aura of Obama's sterling charisma. He certainly gained a huge celebrity status as the darling of the liberal Democratic Party class and the mainstream media as the first African-American candidate to gain his party's nomination for President.
Beyond Obama's brief term as a US Senator, he had served in the Illinois legislature, worked as a law professor at the University of Chicago and gained experience as a community organizer. He had never been a manager or executive in charge of running anything other than his own legislative offices and political campaigns. So making a wild guess that most of those who attended the DC preview showing of "Game Change" last night voted for Obama in 2008, how could they agree with the screenwriter's moral that "celebrity and charisma" should not be "a deciding factor in choosing our leaders"?
If they were thinking of Sarah Palin's charisma in making such a conclusion about the movie, it should be pointed out to these Obama fans that Palin is in Alaska, not in a federal office. Sarah Palin and John McCain were not chosen to be our leaders. The candidate who won was the person who had nothing to offer but "charisma and celebrity".
We can only hope that this crowd will take the screenwriter's message to heart in this year's election and think about how well Obama's charisma and celebrity have improved our economy and uplifted the spirit of Americans who are unemployed, seeking jobs, fighting foreclosure of their homes, whose 401k accounts have been diminished and, although recently graduated from college, are still living in their parents' homes for lack of opportunity.
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Since writing the post above, I have now seen the HBO movie. The movie actually refers to both Sarah Palin and Barack Obama as having the attributes of charisma and celebrity. However, McCain's campaign manager is shown saying that there is an important difference between the two: while Sarah Palin cannot name a Supreme Court case (referring to her interview by Katie Couric), Barack Obama was actually a law professor. What is omitted from that phony comparison is that Obama was not running against Sarah Palin. He was running against John McCain, a war hero with three decades of experience in the US House and Senate.
So if the screenwriter's point is that, in electing our Presidents, charisma and celebrity should not be deciding factors, I would agree. Sphere: Related Content
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