He does seem to play it well. He reminds me a little bit of Peter Falk in "Columbo", who does exactly what I would do if I was a detective -- convince my suspect that I was the dumbest cop who ever lived so he'd get complacent and wander into my ambush.
As for the Democrats, I'm starting to think there's going to be an official split among them in the next 10 years. The Democratic Leadership Council (their centrist wing) has been holding its nose for some time now. If Michael Moore is the party's future, at some point they're going to say they've had enough and leave and start a new party.
The other possibility is they may join us.
Excellent analogy.
As for the Democrats, I'm starting to think there's going to be an official split among them in the next 10 years. The Democratic Leadership Council (their centrist wing) has been holding its nose for some time now. If Michael Moore is the party's future, at some point they're going to say they've had enough and leave and start a new party.
The dems are making the same fatal mistake the GOP made 20-30 years ago when they let their extremists (the Religious Right) take over the party. The left found their "bad guy" in Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, et.al. and painted all republicans as like-minded. It was very effective, so much that GOP finally did something about it (and I think they were very effective, although it took them a long time to turn the image around).
With the dems abrupt left turn, the right has been looking for their Falwell Poster Child--Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, et.al. have been singled out, but they've done an effective job of hiding behind the scenery whenever the heat got too bad. Howard Dean looked like a good candidate, but the dems, in a rare moment of sanity, decided they couldn't have someone like them representing them.
Michael Moore, however, is beholden to no one and is more than willing to take the ship into the rocks. He's in a business that requires him to be in the public eye constantly, a business that requires him to be more and more outrageous in order to stay relevant. Like the outrageous TV evangelists that embarrassed and scuttled the GOP, Michael Moore is potentially the left's final demise. The dem leadership, much to their horror, realized this too late. Last weekend several of the top dems were scurrying around the Sunday talk shows trying to disavow the party from their new poster boy.
The other possibility is they may join us.
I think the dems party will split up: The leftists will join the Green Party, the moderates will discover the Libertarians. In the long run, I think American politics will revolve around conservatism vs. libertarianism with the Greens playing the pesky ankle-biters. Before that happens, though, I think there will be some social unrest as we see the democrat leviathan go through some serious death throes. Hold on--we're in for a ride.
The other possibility is they may join us.
They'd better hurry up before the Republicans move to the left of them.