Last week, Jon Stewart told Daily Show guest Bill Kristol that he would have voted for McCain if he had been the Republican nominee in 2000. He didn't elaborate on why. I just find that interesting, that he would have preferred McCain over Gore. Maybe that's why Jon Stewart seems to be especially frustrated with this race. He was really excited and hopeful when McCain had just won the nomination and Obama and Clinton were still duking it out, but obviously McCain has let him down. I don't blame him. McCain was actually really funny on Saturday Night Live last night (so was Ben Affleck - many thanks to him for making fun of Keith Olbermann, who is just as obnoxious and rabid as Bill O'Reilly), and he gave us a glimpse of the charismatic and respectable politician he used to be. I would never vote for McCain, but I value so dearly the back-and-forth of a true policy debate that I'm saddened by the low tactics that McCain and a number of other Republicans have used this year.
Speaking of which, I happened to be up at 2am and heard an interview on the BBC with Oliver Stone, who directed "W". Stone is a hardcore Democrat, but it's so interesting to hear him talk about President Bush as a human being and a pathetic but lovable protagonist in this tragic Shakespearean-esque run of a presidency. I haven't yet seen the movie, but I'm looking forward to it, not because I want to see the man ridiculed on the big screen, but because I want to get to know him beyond his role as the leader of the free world. So many people attack Bush on a personal level, equating his failed policies and skewed world vision with his worth as a person. He's doing what he truly thinks is right, and his failings as a president come from tragic personal flaws, which we all have and which we all fight with every day. It was wrong for the Republican party to put up for election such an unqualified candidate, and it was wrong for the American people to fall for the ruse. I still maintain that if Bush were just some guy who still owned a baseball team and paraded around as the President's son, we'd love him the way we love our favorite team mascot. The same goes for Sarah Palin, really. I hope that after January 20th, 2009, both the Bush family and the Palin family go back home, take care of their families, and learn the value of community organizing. Their time on the national stage is drawing nigh.
