Last week I offered up a haiku-like "review" of the vice presidential debate by way of a quote from the movie A Fish Called Wanda. Well, as much as I kind of hate to continue boiling down the most important presidential contest I've seen in my lifetime to a series of pedestrian pop culture metaphors, I think one particular film reference seems pretty appropriate right about now.
There's a lot of talk going on this afternoon about what we can expect from tonight's second presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain -- about what Obama needs to do to seal the deal with voters and what McCain needs to do to turn the tide back in his direction. To be honest, I can't tell you what McCain's strategy should be because A) I'm not sure there's anything he can do at this point short of sacrificing a goat, chanting an incantation to Satan and magically turning himself into a completely different candidate, and B) we already know exactly what tack McCain will take tonight: he'll make a lot of baseless accusations and sling a shitload of mud because he has no other option.
Obama though -- that's a different story.
I'm beginning to get the feeling that all Obama has to do tonight is stay on message and keep his cool because, whereas with a normal, well-adjusted opponent it might not make much of a difference, with McCain it may be just enough to drive him completely over the edge.
Which brings me to the movie reference (and I hinted at this once before).
John McCain is Colonel Nathan Jessup, Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men.
He's strident, arrogant, antagonistic, and he can't for the life of him figure out why the hell he has to stand there taking crap and answering questions about his record and campaign tactics from the pussies in the media whom he fought to protect the rights of back in 'Nam, from the whining voters who want him to come down off his wall and actually help them during this economic crisis, and especially from some uppity black smart-guy in a faggoty Oxxford suit. McCain always looks like he's one irritating question away from screaming, "You're goddamn right I did (something unethical)!" at the top of his lungs.
Like Colonel Jessup, McCain doesn't want to be bothered explaining himself; he'd rather you just addressed him as "Mr. President" -- he believes he's earned it; he'd rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way.
And like Colonel Jessup, he wants to say this -- out loud -- tonight.
McCain wants to lash out at those he feels are yanking his destiny out from under him. He's already proven he'll say and do anything to get elected; all Obama really has to do is remain perfectly calm, not take the bait, and I promise you it'll frustrate the hell out of John McCain to the point where we may actually see smoke come out of his ears.
Or we may see him completely fucking lose it.
He wants to do it -- he wants to do it so badly.
Obama just has to shake him, put him on the defensive and lead him right where he's dying to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment