The Geena Davis ThingThey've been advertising the heck out of Commander In Chief on Monday Night Football, apparently in the belief that football fans are just itching for a woman president. Here's an
amusing little article on how this show could help Hillary.
Already, the show has made for real-life buzz. The White House Project, which works to elevate women in politics, is hosting house parties nationwide and offering screenings in Manhattan; Washington, D.C.; and Denver. Says Donna Good, who's planning a 200-strong gathering in Boston, "It's the first time popular culture has said a woman can be in the Oval Office."Uh, you know, you should probably check on that.
Kisses for My President, a rather
silly comedy starring Polly Bergen and Fred MacMurray came out in 1964, and I suspect that it was hardly the first bit of pop culture to explore this theme.
"Hillary must have friends at ABC," says Bob Kunst, of hillarynow.com, a grassroots effort to "draft" Clinton to be the next president. "This is just too much of a coincidence."
Actually, Clinton does have friends on the show. Writer Steve Cohen used to work for her in the 1990s, serving as the then first lady's deputy communications director. "I have no doubt she is capable, qualified, and ready to be the president of the United States should she choose to run," he tells the Voice, in all candor.
But Cohen isn't the show's creator. And that man, Rod Lurie, though a Clinton supporter, has said he modeled his female president not on Hillary, but on Susan Lyne, the former head of ABC who now runs the Martha Stewart empire. Besides, the program works in any woman's favor, Democrat or Republican. For Mac is an independent in a post-G.W. administration. "We support the notion of a female president from either side of the aisle," Cohen says.Sure he does. And get this (no doubt apocryphal) story about the groundswell for Hillary in red states:
Even folks in red states are warming up to Clinton. In June, Kunst pulled his truck, plastered with hillarynow.com posters, into a small town in Tennessee. People flocked to him, pressing money into his hand and buying up all 700 of his $2 stickers. He always runs into what he calls "the hysterical, 'I hate her' stuff," yet lately he's encountered more people wondering about Clinton as a leader. Commander in Chief can help "tremendously," he says, so long as it doesn't trivialize the issue.Considering that the first episode is supposed to include an invasion of Nigeria over women's rights, I suspect that trivializing is bound to happen.
Kitty says that
she can't think of Geena Davis without thinking of Thelma & Louise. Fortunately I skipped that piece of man-bashing. I may watch tonight's episode, depending on whether it conflicts with The Amazing Race.
Chris suggests in the comments that we all mention our favorite fictional presidents. I hope nobody mentions Dave, or Michael Douglas, or Martin Sheen. My picks? How about Max Frost from
Wild in the Streets? The Jeff Daniels' character from
The Contender was rather amusingly absurd. For a serious pick, how about Kevin Pollak in
Deterrence, a 1999 movie about the president who has the
cojones to nuke Baghdad?
