As we close with the weekend where Hollywood meets Capitol Hill and the infatuation both groups have for each other, The New York Times asks how would a Hollywood president "tackle the challenges facing Mr. Obama?"
The article covered financial regulation, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and even gay rights:
Well then, what about gay rights? None of this studying it for two years before reversing the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. A film president wouldn’t care about the political cost and would defy the critics.
“Movie and TV presidents can deliver wish fulfillment by being thoroughly unambiguous in public statements,” said Aaron Sorkin, creator of perhaps the most iconic, and unabashedly liberal, screen presidents in recent years in “The American President” and “The West Wing.” In his imagined script, Mr. Sorkin said, the president would declare categorically: “There is no way to prohibit same-sex marriage without saying that homosexual love is something less than heterosexual love. And it’s not. I don’t care how many people disagree with me.”
In real life, of course, presidents do care about how many people disagree with them. And they rarely control the agenda as easily as their film counterparts. “The script is written and rewritten for you every day — the oil spill, for example,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser. “And there are many more characters to contend with, working off their own scripts.”
“Movie and TV presidents can deliver wish fulfillment by being thoroughly unambiguous in public statements,” said Aaron Sorkin, creator of perhaps the most iconic, and unabashedly liberal, screen presidents in recent years in “The American President” and “The West Wing.” In his imagined script, Mr. Sorkin said, the president would declare categorically: “There is no way to prohibit same-sex marriage without saying that homosexual love is something less than heterosexual love. And it’s not. I don’t care how many people disagree with me.”
In real life, of course, presidents do care about how many people disagree with them. And they rarely control the agenda as easily as their film counterparts. “The script is written and rewritten for you every day — the oil spill, for example,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser. “And there are many more characters to contend with, working off their own scripts.”
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