Southern Straw Burning

This past weekend the Republican Southern Leadership Council held an informal straw poll among the various front-runners for the 2008 nomination. Most would not even take note of this except that Republican moneymen like to back front-runners early. Unlike Democrats, who are more willing to embrace an outsider, Republicans like to know whom they are voting and raising money for early. So this straw poll actually did a lot in lining up men with cash and making preparations for the jockeying that will take place next year.

Bill Frist, the Senate Majority leader from Tennessee, was the overall winner, but his victory is largely discounted. The event was held in Memphis and Frist is quite popular in his home state. However, he only received a few votes outside of the Tennessee delegation. What’s more, his leadership style has been almost completely lacking since Trent Lott was forced to resign. In any other state, Frist would probably consider himself luck to finish third. So, this doesn’t mean much overall, except that Frist might want to consider scrapping the Presidency and running for governor of Tennessee first.

The big surprise was who finished number two: Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts. It was widely expected that the number two slot would be a horserace between John McCain and John Warner (senator from Virginia). That someone not even from the south won the number two spot is potentially very big. Depending on how the increased scrutiny on his record as governor of Massachusetts goes, Romney could have just made a major step forward. Most of the Washington insiders want someone a bit more moderate that President Bush who will work a little better with the Democrats and won’t bring this emotional baggage to the table. What’s more, coming from a New England state, Romney could force a Democratic candidate to spend money to secure states they would normally win hands down. If Romney gets the nomination, he’ll have to select a southern conservative like Warner to fully placate the base and ensure a good turnout. Fortunately, being a Mormon, Romney shouldn’t have too much trouble getting the religious vote, despite the fact that conservative Christians and Mormons don’t always see eye to eye.

The other amusing story was the performance of John McCain. McCain seemed to sense early that he would get thumped in a race where he really needed to finish second. So he began going around and telling people to vote for Bush as a measure of solidarity. Some did and Bush finished fourth in a race that he can’t win, but most saw through this a ploy for McCain to disguise his poor showing. Even assuming that all those who voted for Bush would have voted for McCain, combining the two stacks would still have given McCain a third place finish and a fourth place finish is probably more accurate of his standing among the SRLC. What this shows is that McCain, while popular with the Beltway insiders and the media, is still not very popular with the base, despite his pandering. I don’t know what kind of deal McCain cut with Bush to get McCain to campaign for him, but McCain is going to need some serious help if he wants to be a factor in the primaries after Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

Now, much is still going on and I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of years. For all we know, Mr. Cheney could have a fifth heart attack and be forced to resign for health reasons, prompting Mr. Bush to pluck someone from the masses and anoint them as a successor. But, I rather doubt that will happen. Still, this upcoming election is starting to take on more and more of a West Wing flavor.

IDIOT! Give me your money for this Crap!

So the Oscars were on last night. I didn’t really watch anything beyond Jon Stewart’s opening monologue, but I was in the other room and could hear a lot of it while Mrs. X watched it. However, she turned the TV off at 10 so I can’t say anything beyond that. In general of what I overheard, I was reminded of the scene from The Breakfast Club where Anthony Michael Hall’s character is spilling out about being unpopular and Molly Ringwald’s character says its because that they all look up to the popular kids (which include her and Emilio Estevez). Hollywood spend a good portion of last night slapping themselves on the back and chastising the public about not going to see the movies they make and slurping them for being on the cutting edge of culture.

There have been decidedly mixed reviews for Jon Stewart’s performance as host. I liked it, but it was easy to tell that the audience didn’t. Actors want to be lauded, not made fun of. Except that that’s what Jon Stewart does. But then again, with the trouble Hollywood has had in the past in getting people to host the show, its not surprising that they turned to Stewart. Maybe they thought it would make them hip or something.

No matter what you thought of Stewart’s performance, it was easily overshadowed by the almost palpable anger/irritation displayed by the Hollywood elite towards the unwashed masses for not recognizing them as the vanguard of culture and for giving them lots of money to see movies in a theater. There were at least two very snide comments about how nothing compares to seeing a movie in the theater and how we shouldn’t be buying DVDs because it doesn’t compare to a real movie experience. Actually, the last two movies I saw in the theater were Goblet of Fire and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. At Goblet of Fire, I nearly passed out from heat stroke, the theater was so packed and overheated and Mrs. X was almost reduced to tears she was in so much pain from sitting in the seats and being crowded by so many people. At Narnia, the aspect ratio of the movie was off so that any character’s head that was near the top of the screen was cut off at the nose. Neither of these is what I would call a truly enjoyable experience. Certainly not one that encourages me to go out and spend $9 on a random movie that may or not interest me.

The other thing that got me was the endless montages of how great Hollywood is. I made the snide remark to Mrs. X that if Hollywood could actually make a move as good as Ben Hur again, maybe people would actually go see them and they wouldn’t have to spend all this time and money yelling at people to remember how good they were and to try and get them to see a bunch of bad movies now.

One can only hope that the laws of capitalism eventually sink in to the Hollywood types and that if they make a good product, people will actually take part of that product. If not, the Oscars are only going to get worse in they’re living in the past and anger towards the masses.