While Barack Obama has established a 10-point lead in the race for the White House, the McCain campaign struggles to stay in the game. With only three weeks left until Election Day, McCain would have to do what no presidential hopeful has managed to do before in order to come back from this deficit and beat Obama.
However, there is some hope left. So far, I have not managed to find a single reason to vote for the Arizona Senator (which of course is hypothetical anyway for the non-American that I am). But today Bill Kristol introduced me to the one of the better arguments for why McCain deserves to become the 44th president of the United States. But please read for yourselves:
"Katie Couric asked each candidate recently what his favorite movie was. Obama gave an utterly conventional answer: 'Oh, I think it would have to be The Godfather. One and two. Three not so much. Umm. So-so, but, but that--that saga--I love that movie.'
Couric asked him to explain a bit.
Obama: I mean there's this combination of old world gentility and, you know, ritual with this savagery underneath. It's all about family. So it's a great movie. Lawrence of Arabia. Great film. One of my favorites--and then Casablanca. Who doesn't like Casablanca?
Couric: I asked for one.
Obama: I'm a movie guy. I can rattle off a bunch of movies. But that Casablanca, you know.
That's Obama. He's glib, conventional, won't make a real choice, shows nothing about himself, and says nothing offputting and says nothing impressive.
McCain's answer was in no way conventional:
Viva Zapata! It's a movie made by Elia Kazan. It was one of the trilogy of A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront and Viva Zapata! Marlon Brando stars in it. He plays Zapata. It's a heroic tale of a person who sacrificed everything for what he believed in, and there's some of the most moving scenes in that movie that I've ever seen. 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?" And he says, "I gotta go to Mexico City tomorrow. I've gotta be with Pancho Villa and Modero and these people." He says "I can't read." And she reaches over and takes the bible from the table and opens it up and starts, "In the beginning." You know, it's a great scene. 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.
Which one of these two men do you want to be president in a time of crisis and difficulty? Viva McCain!"
