If Obama met Bartlett
This is hilarious. In it, Barack Obama, the man who would be president, meets Jebediah Bartlett, the man who we all wish was president but can't be because he's fictional. Gets a little preachy at the end (it is Maureen Dowd, after all) but overall, quite amusing.
Best lines (all, needless to say, from Bartlett) include:
"As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America."
"I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose..."
"I’m supporting McCain. He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my 'to do' list."
"I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me."
"The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it."
Tell me about it (especially that last one).
"What's a Wonderwall anyway?"
- Travis, Writing to Reach You
Best lines (all, needless to say, from Bartlett) include:
"As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America."
"I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose..."
"I’m supporting McCain. He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my 'to do' list."
"I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me."
"The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it."
Tell me about it (especially that last one).
"What's a Wonderwall anyway?"
- Travis, Writing to Reach You
2 Comments:
Nice song quote.
I think Aaron Sorkin wrote most of the column, actually. And, yeah, he gets preachy too.
As I remember, Jed Bartlett trashes some stupid Southern governor in a debate (wonder who that was a reference too?) by highlighting his own intelligence and saying that simple, sound bite answers do not equal ability to govern. Aaron Sorkin's fantasy debate. In reality, the guy with better sound bites probably wins. Which makes me concerned for Friday's debate. I figure Obama will try to give actual answers that address questions in depth. And McCain will have some one-liner ready.
I wasn't sure whether she was kidding or not about Sorkin.
That last bit reminds me of an op-ed I read awhile back post-Warren. (I think it was Ruth Marcus.) She said she wished she lived in McCain's world where answers are clear, black-and-white, right vs. wrong. But she was pretty damn sure we lived in Obama's world, where issues are complex and nuanced and the black and white bleed together into a massive gray area. Similarly, sound bites tend to eliminate nuance. I think most Americans respond to the clear black and white picture because life's so damn complicated that something should be simple.
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