In Search of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.
Lou Dobbs reveals what is not surprising this news cycle, that he is considering launching himself for president. You recall the 1941 masterpiece by Frank Capra, "Meet John Doe." The game (concocted by newspaper advice columnist Barbara Stanwyck to save her job) was to create a common man who was so fed up with the anger, falsehoods, danger and squabbling of the day that he was going to kill himself on Christmas Eve rather than live longer in this American rat's nest. The frantic newspaper search for a John Doe to satisfy the public affection for and craving for this desperate invented citizen produces an amiable, vapid, dreamy ex-ball player, starring Gary Cooper. Presto, the John Doe Clubs spring up across the country to show that people can work together, live side by side, cooperatively, and these same clubs petition John (Gary Cooper) Doe not to kill himself. Meanwhile, the concoction of falsehoods and public manipulation by the newspaper is taken over by the plutocrat publisher who aims to promote himself for the presidency on the basis of the John Doe Clubs. Cynicism, brutality, exploitation, lies. Capra never could solve the ending. Now we have Lou Dobs and his little step-brother in Doeism, Glenn Beck, both of them toying with politics for self-promotion and book sales. The end Capra could not see because he was insufficiently cynical (it was 1941, the world was in a pit; it is hard to be cynical when they are shooting at you), was that Gary Cooper writes a bestselling book with Barbara Stanwyck, and they get a weekly radio advice show together until TV is invented. Now we have Lou and Glenn, in search of their Barbara Stanwyck. Meet Lou Doe.
My TV set gathers dust in a hallway closet, so I have not seen Lou Dobbs' cable show, but I gather that virtually alone among media personalities, Pat Buchanan and he sometimes let slip what they really think about such matters as illegal immigration and what is laughingly termed "free trade."
How very foolish of them to value the well-being of ordinary Americans over both ratings and the good opinion of the coastal elites, particularly when one recalls the high cost of living in Manhattan.
Nice try, but Lou isn't the one. It's now a foregone conclusion that anybody who's not a Democrat will win the next go-around. But that doesn’t mean that ‘Republican’ or ‘Independent’ would fare much better. The Republican brand, especially, is seriously damaged as well. The next presidential election will not turn on party affiliation. It will turn on character.
I've listened to Lou's radio show, and though he eventually gets around to saying all the right things, there's some slight degree of self-promotion that’s difficult to come to terms with. The next POTUS will be reluctant to enter the race; he'll be self-effacing; he'll be drafted into taking the job; and once he gets going, he'll take the country by storm. On a previous thread I've ventured that current political figures of either party need not apply. Some one from the entrainment field might do just fine.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
Retiring CT Gov. Jodi Rell showed up at the Annual Stamford Thanksgiving Balloon parade yesterday, a big local event.
Wondering out loud to myself why a retiring Governor would attend a parade far from Home and Hartford. Is she running for something else?
Connecticut was stunned by the announcement of her retirement.
Rell ran a tight ship and vetoed several budgets over her career. Is the Senate calling? Or the Naval Observatory?
Not a whisper of scandal, and unlike other governors ;^) she is not a scene stealer and adds Gravitas and Maturity. Safe VP choice for a GOP candidate, unless you are from neighboring Massachusetts.