Posted on 11/16/2008 3:16:13 AM PST by Rummyfan
Before we close the book on this election season, let me quote one of the most dispiriting asides on the subject. Daniel Craig, the star of the new James Bond movie The Audacity Of Solace – no, wait, A Quantum Of Hope - was being interviewed by Kevin Sessums for Parade (that supplement thingie that’s free in all the local newspapers), and as a final question was asked which of the two candidates would make the better 007:
Craig doesn’t hesitate. ‘Obama would be the better Bond because—if he’s true to his word—he’d be willing to quite literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe-to-toe with them. McCain, because of his long service and experience, would probably be a better M,’ he adds, mentioning Bond’s boss, played by Dame Judi Dench. ‘There is, come to think of it, a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain.’
Oh, great. John McCain has survived plane crashes, just like Roger Moore in Octopussy. He has escaped death in shipboard infernos, just like Sean Connery in Thunderball. He has endured torture day after day, month after month, without end, just like Pierce Brosnan in the title sequence of Die Another Day. He has done everything 007 has done except get lowered into a shark tank and (as far as we know) bed Britt Ekland and Jill St John.
And yet Daniel Craig gives him the desk job.
On the other hand, Barack Obama has spent his entire adult life chit-chatting with “community organizers” and campus lefties – and he’s the last action hero? It’s true he’s offered “to quite literally look the enemy in the eye” without preconditions. But, given that he looked the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in the eye for 20 years and failed to notice he was an ugly neo-segregationist race-baiter peddling insane conspiracy theories, and that he looked William Ayers in the eye for almost as long and failed to notice he was an unrepentant terrorist, and that he looked Tony Rezko in the eye for an extremely beneficial real estate deal and failed to notice he was already being mentioned in the Chicago papers for various unsavory activities, I’m not sure Senator Obama is the go-to guy for in-the-field intelligence work.
As for his plan to fly to Tehran to “go toe-to-toe” with President Ahmadinejad, one can’t but feel that 007’s famous exchange with Goldfinger pretty much sums up the cross-purposes:
'Do you expect me to talk?'
'No, Mr Bond. I expect you to die.'
Barack Obama expects to talk and talk and talk, while our enemies expect the west to die. I’m not sure Chat Another Day is a recipe for a satisfying Bond movie.
Yet Mr Craig gets to the heart of the conservative crisis at the end of this dispiriting election season. I’m sure the Bond star disagrees with John McCain on a zillion things – although, come to think of it, he’d be hard put to disagree with him more than I do, on campaign finance reform, illegal immigration, government mortgage bailouts, etc. Still, political dispositions aside, it surely shouldn’t be so difficult to see in the old, cranky, physically awkward survivor an heroic narrative, a sense of honor and sacrifice and personal courage – the qualities that animate great storytelling across the ages.
But no: the passive campus yakker for Bond, the naval pilot POW for desk-jockey. That’s it in a nutshell: Culture-wise, conservatives are only up for the supporting role.
That’s the problem, and pulling the lever for a guy with an R after his name every other November isn’t going to fix it. If the default mode of a society’s institutions is liberal, electing GOP legislators eventually accomplishes little more than letting a Republican driver take a turn steering the liberal bus. If Hollywood’s liberal, if the newspapers are liberal, if the pop stars are liberal, if the grade schools are liberal, if the very language is liberal to the point where all the nice words have been co-opted as a painless liberal sedative, a Republican legislature isn’t going to be a shining city on a hill so much as one of those atolls in the Maldives being incrementally swallowed by Al Gore’s rising sea levels.
However the election had gone, conservatism’s fractious precriminations – David Frum vs Tony Blankley, Mark Levin vs Peggy Noonan – would be set to continue. But the lesson of the last grim year is that it’s not merely about candidates or policy or electoral strategy. We have to get back in the game in all the arenas we’ve ceded to liberalism – from kindergarten to blockbuster movies. Otherwise, as in Daniel Craig’s improvised casting call, we’ll be lucky to wind up with a cameo in the national narrative.
And yes, his answer was ridiculous. Who do you want on your side when you’re approaching Checkpoint Charlie and you’ve got to rescue the girl? The guy who flies to Germany and coos fatuous platitudes about there being “no challenge too great for a world that stands as one”? Or a crazy old coot who’ll get you over the wall and take a bullet for you? I know who Ian Fleming would have bet on.
from National Review
Ping!
-—Daniel Craig again proves the truth of John Waynes’ statement about some fellow actor—”of course he’s an actor. He’s too dumb to do anything else.—”
I’m going to see the movie later this morning but at least I’ll be at the matinee so they don’t get too much of my money.
One reviewer said the movie was a mess and the shortest Bond movie on record. It just seems like the longest. As far as Craig, I’ll repeat what a woman said. Too many boys. Too few men.
The “Change” we are apparently going to get is nothing more than a switchout of our congresscritters and staff pukes for their congresscritters and staff pukes.
They're not rocket scientists, even if they play them on the big screen.
Craig is just another tool.
*Steyn-O-Bump*
This one is Top 10 material.
Zero is truly a great con and playing the Marxist/ Socialist part to a tee. It's hard for the country(with so much white guilt) to say anything negative about a soft talking non angry black man.
Most won't even notice as he turns the country from a quasi free market capitalist one to a seething Marxist paradise where capitalism is hated and Marxism is revered.
Incrementally is the key. That's how it will happen,if we let it.A littile bit at a time so we don't even notice.
You’re right. It’s the trait of some conservatives who demand that it all happen at once or we get upset. Libs are glad to win step by step.
Well....erm.
Theory #2: Those who have "there-there" in real time, as well as the ability to act, are indeed gifted. That they can maintain their center WHILE donning the prescribed task list of another, makes them the target of great envy and hostility from those who fall into the first category of theory.
We have to demand a conservative party and incrementally move them(dems rinos) out of the way they way the same way they push us out of the way a little at a time. So far we are doing a lousy job.
It’s the end of the world as we knew it.
Recently Steyn has been hitting a certain theme over and over. He is saying that you can’t cede virtually all of a society’s cultural institutions to the left and expect people to vote conservative. The left controls most of the media which includes news, entertainment and publishing and it controls most of the education establishment from K thru PHD. This has been the case for over 30 years and the results show in the erosion of religion, tradition and a knowledge of history. The result is Republicans who act like democrats and democrats who act like socialists.
Built by Libs: an 'upside-down' MODEL home; now a gift to our latest 'Generation-rising' and more of same perverted realities to come, for the next Generation!
And of course, ANYone needing a 'home' will be so provided for.
The 'look-me-in-the-eye' hero; who then 'walks'; IS the hero, for all Liberal losers whose world-view is upside-down. . .and sideways. . .
Good synopsis.
I guess the new Bond guy has never spoken to someone who lived in Poland during the late 1930s. I won't be seeing that movie.
Mark
BUMP for Lunch!
I heard a report on the radio the other day about how surprised many in the media were that the supposedly "recession-proof" entertainment industry was hurting in todays economic climate, especially the movie industry. They even mentioned that attendance trends are even worse than they were during the great depression...
Gee, I can't imagine why. The sheer number of crappy movies today is far more than ever before. Couple that with the fact that so many movies are NOT family friendly, and the cost of taking your family to the movies can easily cost the same as a week's worth of groceries for that same family, and you begin to see a problem here.
Speaking strictly for myself, I can only recall seeing 2 movies in the last year, and I LOVE going to movies, and used to go to the movies at least once a month. I saw the last Harry Potter movie, and 300. My aunt used to go at least twice a month, and she hasn't gone to see a movie in over a year. In her case, it's mostly because she remembers going to movies during the great depression, and remembers the nickel shows, and can't bring herself to pay even the reduced ticket prices for senior citizens. Not because she can't afford it, but because she simply can't bring herself to pay it!
Mark
I’ve been around for a very long time and I can assure you that the cultural erosion that has taken place has been going on much longer than 30 years.
It simply didn’t manifest its damage until this past decade or so—typical of it’s termite-like destructive impact.
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