Viva McCain!
KRISTOL, WILLIAM
EDITORIAL Viva McCain! It’s been a dopey campaign. But they usually are. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt ran on balancing the budget and cutting government spending. In 1940, it was...
...We still haven’t come to grips with the realities of the post 9/11 world of terror, jihadism, nuclear proliferation, and an axis of dictatorships determined to resist and roll back the advances of freedom and democracy...
...I’ve gotta be with Pancho Villa and Modero and these people...
...That’s Obama...
...Great fi lm...
...As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew...
...Election campaigns—like intellectual debates—tend to be past- and present-oriented...
...neutrality in the European war...
...The odd truth about Obama is that, for all his unsavory radical associations—and they are unsavory and a legitimate issue in the campaign—he’s not radical enough for the times and challenges we face...
...And it’s not as if our elites are any more far-seeing than our politicians...
...Katie Couric asked each candidate recently what his favorite movie was...
...We haven’t even begun to understand the implications and consequences of the fi nancial crisis that has burst upon us...
...McCain’s answer was in no way conventional: Viva Zapata...
...It’s great and there’s many others that are wonderful too, especially when he dies—when he gives everything for his country and what he believes in...
...This isn’t a criticism of America or of its democracy...
...But that Casablanca, you know...
...COURIC: I asked for one...
...But he’s shown strong character in his life, and he’s done serious things...
...And one of them is he gets married—the night of his wedding night— he gets up and he and Jean Peters are in their hotel room— this little room and she says “What’s the matter...
...But one is far less imperfect than the other...
...Three not so much...
...Obama gave an utterly conventional answer: “Oh, I think it would have to be The Godfather...
...Who doesn’t like Casablanca...
...So-so, but, but that—that saga—I love that movie...
...Neither of the two men who have been nominated by their parties for president is perfect for this challenging moment...
...He won’t be passive as president, and he’ll think anew and act anew as he adjusts to the challenges we face, in the spirit of doing what’s necessary to preserve and strengthen the underlying principles of American life...
...It’s all about family...
...In 2000, the issue of Islamic terrorism was barely mentioned by George W. Bush or Al Gore...
...And she reaches over and takes the bible from the—table and opens it up and starts, “In the beginning...
...Which one of these two men do you want to be president in a time of crisis and diffi culty...
...It was one of the trilogy of A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront and Viva Zapata...
...You know, it’s a great scene...
...And he says, “I gotta go to Mexico City tomorrow...
...The other candidate, John McCain, has been all over the map in terms of domestic policies, and has shown a management style during the campaign that makes one worry about the coherence and purposefulness of his administration...
...In 1960, on the cusp of a decade of fundamental change in race relations and the size and scope of the government, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon spent a lot of time debating a nonexistent missile gap and Quemoy and Matsu...
...One and two...
...This is surely one of those times...
...William Kristol...
...I can rattle off a bunch of movies...
...One is an orthodox and timid liberal, personally ambitious but intellectually conventional...
...OBAMA: I’m a movie guy...
...He’s glib, conventional, won’t make a real choice, shows nothing about himself, and says nothing offputting and says nothing impressive...
...One of my favorites—and then Casablanca...
...He plays Zapata...
...For all his talk of hope and change, when has Barack Obama ever shown a willingness to break with liberal orthodoxy or Democratic dogma...
...In 1940, it was preserving U.S...
...It’s a heroic tale of a person who sacrifi ced everything for what he believed in, and there’s some of the most moving scenes in that movie that I’ve ever seen...
...He says “I can’t read...
...The occasion is piled high with diffi culty, and we must rise with the occasion...
...EDITORIAL Viva McCain...
...And we have put off thinking seriously about various Brave New World-type issues that loom before us in the 21st century...
...Marlon Brando stars in it...
...One does sense today that, as Lincoln memorably put it, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...
...It’s a movie made by Elia Kazan...
...Other countries are no better...
...His general views are centrist, but he’s willing to be bold when necessary...
...OBAMA: I mean there’s this combination of old world gentility and, you know, ritual with this savagery underneath...
...But sometimes the past and present are of limited use as guides to the future...
...Lawrence of Arabia...
...Couric asked him to explain a bit...
...What bold decision has he taken, what unpopular idea has he embraced...
...So it’s a great movie...
Vol. 14 • October 2008 • No. 6
