Sunday, August 31, 2008

McCain-Palin Playing Out Like "Commander In Chief"?



When I found out the news on Friday that John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his VP pick, I immediately thought of one of my favorite shows, Commander In Chief (RIP). Bochco ruined that show! (Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest!). Well, I guess I wasn't the only one who thought that either...

Geena Davis won the Golden Globe for her role as Mackenzie Allen, the first female President of the United States of America, and was nominated for the Emmy after the show was wrongfully cancelled. In the show, Geena Davis's character, Mackenzie Allen, is the Vice President. The president, Teddy Bridges, has a stroke and dies, therefore Allen takes over and becomes president. Minus the dying part for McCain, we may see this happen.

Well anyway, here is what some of the press has been saying. Even Rod Lurie, Commander In Chief's creator before Bochco took over, sounded out about this:


Could Be Commander in Chief Sarah Palin
Steve Clemons, Friday, Aug 29 2008, 4:05PM

What was that TV show where Geena Davis was an unlikely female VP is thrust into the presidency after the tough national hero president she served under passed away while in office? That's right: Commander in Chief.

Well, life may be following fiction (again) -- without the passing away part. . .
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is going to be the one to debate Joe Biden in the VP debate. It will be a competition in folksiness.

This was a shrewd move by McCain. He had a lot of other options that were low sizzle -- but this choice, while perplexing, still makes a lot of sense.
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Sarah Palin for veep? What about Geena Davis?
Posted by Glenn Garvin at 06:32 PM in Broadcast series

If the news that John McCain had picked the young, relatively inexperience and something-of-a-maverick Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his Republican running mate had you scratching your head and thinking, Haven't I already seen this on TV?, you're probably not alone. That's exactly the plot of 2005 ABC's Commander In Chief -- or the first half hour of it, anyway. Then McCain -- errr, Teddy Bridges -- dies of a stroke and his vice president (played by Geena Davis) takes over the White House, threatens to go to war against Nigeria over female circumcision, Congress revolts and her appendix explodes while she's jetting around in Air Force One.

Rod Lurie, the producer who created Commander In Chief, thinks the Republicans actually stole his show. "It's unbelievable isn't it?" he told the Hollywood Reporter Friday. "I think that Geena and I need to be paid royalties by the Republicans." Commander in Chief portrayed Davis' character as heroic and the detractors who said she was young, inexperienced and possessed of too many X chromosomes as misogynist swine. But come on, Lurie says now, that was just a TV show. You wouldn't want to actually have a chick in the White House: "The idea of this woman actually facing down [Vladimir] Putin and negotiating with [Dmitry] Medvedev is idiotic."
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'Commander in Chief' creator criticizes Palin pick
By James Hibberd and Alex Ben BlockAugust 29, 2008

Older Republican candidate picks relatively inexperienced young woman to be his vice president?

Check.

The Republican dies of a stroke and his VP becomes the leader of the free world?

Hmm ...

ABC's "Commander in Chief," starring Geena Davis, played out this scenario in 2005.

With 72-year-old Republican nominee John McCain shocking Beltway insiders by tapping 44-year-old Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his veep pick, suddenly a portion of the "Chief" premise seems downright precognitive.

"It's unbelievable isn't it?" said "Chief" creator Rod Lurie. "I think that Geena and I need to be paid royalties by the Republicans."

Lurie was reached by phone as he was leaving the Democratic National Convention, en route to Toronto, where he will screen his new film "Nothing but the Truth."

A Barack Obama supporter, Lurie criticized the real-life manifestation of his TV fiction.

"People who understand politics know anything is possible," he said. "Picking a woman is an absolute strategic idea from McCain's point of view. He's not talking about governing right now. The idea of this woman actually facing down [Vladimir] Putin and negotiating with [Dmitry] Medvedev is idiotic."

In the "Chief" pilot, the qualifications of Davis' character also came under fire before she later proved her worth.

"We don't need the world to see a soft, indecisive woman commanding the troops," one character declared.

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http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/08/commander_in_ch/
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/changing_channels/broadcast_series/index.html
http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/08/commander-in-ch.html#more





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