The other day I watched the HD version of Independence Day (1996), Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's star-studded alien invasion of Earth popcorn movie extravaganza.
As I think about next year's American presidential election and the current field of candidates, I think about Bill Pullman's character in that movie, the fictional President Thomas J. Whitmore. Insofar as he is young and idealistic, Whitmore was described as being by reviewers at the time as being "Clintonian." Plainly speaking, he was partially based on then President Bill Clinton, who was running for re-election at the time.
Bill Clinton's enemies unfairly smeared him as a Vietnam War draft dodger, but allegations of his philandering turned out to be true. By contrast, Whitmore is a retired Air Force pilot who served in the 1991 Gulf War, a faithful husband, and a loving father. He proves his worth by rising to the challenge of defeating a global threat.
It's almost a pity that a man of Whitmore's calibre is not a candidate. Just over a year from election day, there is no candidate in the current field who has captured the imagination of the American public. Hillary Clinton will probably be the Democrat nominee, but the Republican field is too crowded. It's anyone's guess who the eventual nominee turns out to be. I just wish the oxygen thieves would drop out and improve the chances of those who actually have a chance of winning, and are actually capable of doing the job.
2 comments:
Yeah. I think American presidents in the movies are usually better than the real ones.
And the American presidents we DO see as being great are probably not as great as we imagine. In our minds, we have an idealized version of them.
Thanks for your comment. By the way, you're welcome to speculate on the identity of the oxygen thief I refer to in this posting. It should be obvious by now whom I'm referring to.
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