An Exchange of Words: David B. Coe’s Weblog

Why is it that white politicians only get in trouble when they tell a lie, and even then it’s only 50-50 that they’ll be caught, but African-American politicians get in trouble when they tell the truth?

Anyone who doesn’t think that Barack Obama was speaking the truth when he referred to the bitterness in rural small-town America, is either hopelessly naive or cynically seeking political advantage (Senators Clinton and McCain take note).  The economic dislocations of the past few decades have engendered resentments that manifest themselves in a variety ways including not only closer ties to religious communities, but also racism, homophobia, and hostility toward hispanic immigrants.

Did Obama phrase his statement perfectly?  No, probably not.  But war rages in Iraq (did anyone happen to notice that 17 American soldiers died in Iraq this week?), we are in the midst of a global environmental crisis, our economy is in shambles, our health care system desperately needs reform, and dozens of other important issues beg for our attention.  And instead, our political leaders and televisions talking heads are parsing the meaning of the word “bitter.”

I am SO sick of this process.

Another Saturday, another BOW Award.  For those of you tuning in for the first time, I give a BOW (Buffoon Of the Week) Award each Saturday to the politician or pundit who does or says the most outrageously stupid thing.  This is only my third week doing this — past winners were Representative Steven King (R-Iowa) and former Representative and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro.  For the record, neither Rep. King nor former Rep. Ferraro has contacted me to collect his or her award.  Probably a good thing, since I have no idea what I’d give them.  I suppose you could say that Buffoon Of the Week is more or less an honorary title….

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Okay, at the risk of revealing myself as a total West Wing nerd, I’d like to ask if anyone else has noticed the amazing similarities between this year’s Presidential race and the Matt Santos-Arnold Vinick race that dominated the show’s final season.

I was in Australia for the final season of The West Wing and didn’t get to watch the episodes as the season unfolded.  Instead, the Christmas after our return to the States, Nancy gave me the complete 7 season DVD collection, which I watched from beginning to end over the course of 13 months.  That’s right:  I only finished watching season seven a few weeks ago.  And I was blown away by how closely the narrative of the 2008 race has followed that of the fictional election.

On the Republican side, you had Arnold Vinick, played by Alan Alda.  Vinick was from California rather than Arizona, but in other ways he was the television doppelganger of John McCain.  He was a moderate Republican who had bucked party orthodoxy on a number of issues, earning the admiration of centrists and independents, but alienating the party’s right-wing base.  Now the fictional Vinick was actually to the left of McCain on social issues — he was pro-choice, supportive of gay rights, and in favor of gun control — but he was also a fiscal hawk and someone who had extensive foreign policy experience.  As the campaign went on, he was forced to take stances on issues that were more conservative than he would have liked, but his appeal to the political center made him a formidable candidate.

The Democratic nominee, Matthew Santos, played by Jimmy Smits, was a Texas Congressman with relatively little political experience.  But in this fictional America he was perceived as being honest, he inspired voters with brilliant, passionate rhetoric, and he came to be seen as an agent of change. He was also a minority candidate, a Latino who was seeking to become the first Hispanic President in the nation’s history.  He ran an insurgency campaign against the better known establishment candidate and managed to win the nomination after a bitter primary battle that went all the way to the Democratic convention.  Any of this sound familiar?

I’m not going to give away the ending, though if you know anything about The West Wing and it’s creators you can probably guess.  But one of the things I always loved about the show was it’s uncanny ability to be utterly original while so closely mimicking real-life political circumstances.  Still, I never would have believed that the show’s creative team could so accurately predict what has happened so far this year.