One interview that I found fabulously engrossing was a lonely feeling moment in a car with North's Chief Strategist, Mark Goodin.
I've transcribed it as best I could. It takes on a certain serendipity in light of George Allen's media piece planned for tomorrow.
Enjoy:
"We're all caught up in the show. We're all caught up in the entertainment value of politics. We have to serve up something
every day for the press or they eat us. It's like feeding lions. If they're fed, they don't turn on us, but if they're not fed, they're hungry and they turn on us. So, we have to serve up the daily entertainment. The daily sideshow.Getting people elected, whether we like it or not, it's not pretty, but getting people elected, unfortunately has a lot to do with dividing... setting up bases of support, and fracturing off those who.. it's like busting a big rock. You try to chip off your piece and then break the rest of it in to so many smithereens that they don't matter.
But that is different from what it takes to govern, because what it takes to govern is all about finding consensus on difficult issues and bringing people together; people who don't always agree, under some sense of common purpose.
And we are obsessed with getting people elected, and we are obsessed with the show, [to the cameraman] and so are you. or you wouldn't be here.
So we provide daily entertainment. What we are not providing is serious solutions to what's going on in the country; not us, not Chuck Robb, not Clinton, not Bush, not anybody.
At the end of the film, when North loses, Goodin is overwhelmingly enraged at himself. Why? Because he wasn't negative enough:
"This is the triumph of negative politics, pure and simple. Voters say they have great disdain for negative politics, but the simple truth and the ugly truth is that negative campaigning works.
and later...
Q: You can't feel badly for running a positive campaign.
A: I don't regret that, but the winners write the history of this stuff and in the end the negative stuff sticks. I SHOULD NEVER HAVE
EVER HAVER FORGOTTEN THAT. I tell ya, I've learned my lesson. Next time around I cut the guy's balls of, if he has any.
The Film ends with this from Goodin:
Boy I don't think I'll make that mistake again. I should just never have let off the gas on the guy. I don't think I'll ever make that mistake again. I shoulda just kept poundin' away.
Just for fun, here's a bit of a speech Bill Clinton gave in 1994 at the 2nd Annual Kennedy-King Dinner, the night that Doug Wilder endorsed Chuck Robb for the US Senate.
I am a Southerner. I love this part of the country, but I know one thing, you look at our past, the past that Doug Wilder had to overcome...How have we lived with these contradictions all this time?
By finding somebody to demonize. And a lot of the time, before it became unfashionable, we demonized black people. Now we're demonizing liberals, nevermind if it doesn't fit. Nevermind if the facts aren't right. The people are upset, they're exercised, they're anxiety-ridden, they're cynical and skeptical about the government... So spend seventeen million dollars and tell it to 'em anyway. If it's not true who cares?
And what you need to do, is not so much to bash your adversaries, although goodness knows, you need to answer 'em back ...
YOU NEED TO TURN THE LIGHT ON IN VIRGINIA!
You need to let the light shine and let people feel the future flowing through their veigns!
In their hearts!
In their minds!
In their spirits!
How do you not love Bill Clinton?! As Bush divides, Clinton Inspired, which may have something to do with why he governed so well.
Well... Allen's doing his best to entertain the press as often as possible, bless his little heart (and smaller brain) :)
Stunning!
Take a look at that Chris Wallace interview on 60 minutes. Despite Chris's smirk, which Bill Clinton correctly pointed out, Chris was really scared of Clinton once he'd inadvertantly plugged him in. Instead of being able to bait and trivialize Clinton, Chris found he had a tiger by the tail, and he lost control of the interview... ha, ha, ha. I think Webb can have that righteous anger, as well, a fury which makes no threats, does not sneer and belittle, but sure as shootin' puts people in their place and exposes their petty, moist little minds for what they are.
This movie is truly amazing.
Chuck Robb on Ollie North:
Let me tell you something about my opponent. My opponent is a document shreading, constitution trashing, commander in chief bashing, aiatolla loving, arms dealing, criminal protecthing, resume enhancing, noriega coddling, swiss-banking, law breaking, letter faking, self-serving, snake-oil salesman, who can't tell the difference between the truth and a lie.
Ultimately, I can't quite make out the moral of this story. One thing's for sure, sweet as it may be, winning sure isn't pretty.