August 7, 2008

McCain or Obama — who had the better experience his first time...

... at the movies?
"I think I may have teared up at the end..."...

"Oh, yeah, I cried.''
And how about favorite TV shows? Isn't it obvious which one is Obama and which one is McCain?
"I think M*A*S*H was probably my favorite. [My wife's] favorite is The Dick Van Dyke Show, which she sometimes now watches [in reruns]. I have to say The Dick Van Dyke Show ranks right up there.''...

'There are shows [my wife and I] agree on. We like the reruns of Seinfeld. I really like Curb Your Enthusiasm. I kind of like Dexter, too, although it certainly has a macabre side to it. I'll tell you that [my wife] likes Big Love — I haven't watched it much, but she enjoys that. And I like The Wire a lot, too. That's a great show.''

42 comments:

3rd Way said...

Who had a better experience the first time they used a telegraph?

Paddy O said...

I'll tell you that [my wife] likes Big Love

Hey, something for the Christian Right to get all charged up about!

If they don't, maybe that's suggesting the end of Christian politics.

Henry said...

I think the Dick Van Dyke vote will tip Florida to McCain.

Paddy O said...

Last movie seen in a Theater:
BARACK OBAMA: Shrek the Third: ''Not as good as the original.''

JOHN McCAIN: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: ''A couple of weeks ago we went to see the new 
Indiana Jones movie. I enjoyed that so much. The old guy wins.''


Shrek the Third?! He hasn't seen a new release movie in over a year? How is this our hip, young nominee? Someone needs to get Obama into a screening of Batman and quick!

Also, McCain's response about Brando was particularly interesting. Because it actually showed a real answer rather than a pandering one.

Ann Althouse said...

Did Henry click the link?

Henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Henry said...

I misread your "isn't it obvious"

It's irony, not direction!

Triangle Man said...

Really John? Not "Matlock"?

Well I guess that almost seals my support for McCain. He and I had similar Bambi experiences and watch many of the same shows. I could see myself sitting down with the man, eating some hot wings, and enjoying a nice cold A-B beverage some evening while watching one of our mutual television interests.

MadisonMan said...

paddy, I've not seen a movie in a theater in more than a year either.

garage mahal said...

I could see myself sitting down with the man, eating some hot wings, and enjoying a nice cold A-B beverage some evening while watching one of our mutual television interests.

I could see myself having a beer with McCain and picking his brain about what it was like watching silent films, and life before invention of the telephone.

DBrooks17 said...

I could see myself sitting down with garage mahal, and picking his brain about what life is like on his planet.

MadisonMan said...

Why didn't EW ask them for a reaction to the Favre trade to the Jets? This should help the Jets defend their Super Bowl title.

TJ said...

Bizarre responses. Obama's previously expressed his love for The Wire, but not this time. The favorite fictional president response is also interesting to me. I'd have to re-watch The Contender, but all I really remember is how much Jeff Bridges enjoyed ordering food at any hour from the White House staff.

Paddy O said...

MM, you'd be bad at being the young, hip Presidential candidate as well.

So, would I, truth be told. Last year I only saw one movie in the theaters: No Country for Old Men. This year has been better, but not so much I think too highly of my cultural participation.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Cindy likes 'Big Love'? That bodes well for Mitt and Ann Romney, doesn't it?

Trooper York said...

Poor Brett Farve will only last a year with the Jets. You see people from Wisonsin can't hack it in the big apple and have to go home after about a year.

I think they miss the cheese.

Trooper York said...

Speaking as a Yankee, Giant, Knicks and Ranger Fan, the poor sad sack losers of the tri-state area are the fans of the lowly Mets, Jets, Nets, and Islanders. Look, Doyle is big time Mets fan so that should tell you something.

Jets fans are famous for batting around an inflatable doll instead of a beach ball in the stands and for hanging around one exit under the stands, smoking weed and screaming "show us your tits" at every broad that walks by. Classy.

Little ol'bretty with fit right in.

Anonymous said...

"[My wife's] favorite is The Dick Van Dyke Show, which she sometimes now watches [in reruns]."...

That's part of her Jackie Kennedy routine . Laura Petrie was the Jackie Kennedy of sitcoms at the time.

Ann Althouse said...

jdeeripper, definitely. And Barack looks rather Van Dykey too.

That picture of Jackie at the link: perfect. It's impossible to look and dress better than that.

George M. Spencer said...

Months ago, Sen. Obama told some newspaper that Sponge Bob was his favorite show, and that he watched it with his kids.

I'd feel better if this was his favorite show.

I love the way it zooms in on the halftone dots. Does it pre-date op-art?

(Also, in the Dick Van Dyke show there's an episode "A Show of Hands" from 1965 in which he and Laura accidentally dye their hands black. Laughs ensue when they are embarrassed to be part Negro.)

Trooper York said...

"And Barack looks rather Van Dykey too"

Jeeez. Just because a guy likes to wear wooden Birkenstocks doesn't mean you have to jump to conclusions.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

knox said...

M*A*S*H ?? Barf.

Peter V. Bella said...

Mcain or Obama- who had the better experience his first time....

at the drive in?!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trooper York said...
Poor Brett Farve will only last a year with the Jets. You see people from Wisonsin can't hack it in the big apple and have to go home after about a year.

I think they miss the cheese.

It is not the cheese so much as the poor cheese he would miss. NYC has a much better variety of fine cheese than Green Bay. Sort of the equivalent of giving a homeless drunk a fine bottle of Scotch.

MarkW said...

Also, in the Dick Van Dyke show there's an episode "A Show of Hands" from 1965 in which he and Laura accidentally dye their hands black. Laughs ensue when they are embarrassed to be part Negro.

It's been many years, but as I remember it, the embarrassment was that Rob had to go give a speech to the NAACP, and going with hands dyed black would look like a very odd gesture--but wearing gloves would be worse.

George M. Spencer said...

I think a pre-"Mission Impossible" Barney was in that episode.

(Greg Morris who later died promptly after seeing the atrocity that was the movie version of his TV show.)

MarkW said...

So Obama's trying to seem comfortably mainstream (at the risk of being a bit dull) -- not taking the risk of naming something that might be the cinematic equivalent of arugula, while McCain is trying to seem hip and edgy (while not trying to pretend he's not old).

No surprise -- and yet, McCain's answers seem more genuine, somehow. I do see him watching the shows and movies he mentions. I suspect he got a kick out of his Wedding Crashers cameo.

Anonymous said...

JOHN MCCAIN: The Great Train Robbery-- "I told Edison the contraption would never catch on. Guess you can't be right about everything."

Trooper York said...

I mean McCain likes the talkies and all that new fangled stuff but you got to ask him about the cave paintings.

Those are really his favorties.

Revenant said...

McCain is a fan of "The Wire"? Damn, now I wish I'd voted for him in that poll. That's the best dramatic series in the history of television -- much better than The Sopranos, although The Sopranos was certainly good.

I'll tell you that [my wife] likes Big Love

That'll make for some uncomfortable dinner conversations with the Romneys if Mitt's the VP candidate.

Although actually that show makes the LDS look really attractive. The polygamists are clearly portrayed as NOT being part of the LDS -- they spend a lot of effort concealing themselves from them -- and the polygamist cult is portrayed as a bunch of criminal nuts. The Mormons, on the other hand, are portrayed as nice, polite, and community-oriented, if perhaps a little relentless about getting people to join the church. Which in my experience is pretty much accurate.

Bissage said...

John McCain’s least favorite President is the one on “24” who got stabbed by his ex-wife?

You don't know his name???!!!

President Weasel, you jerk!!! His name was President Weasel!!! And his wife was Mary Todd Weasel!!!

This guy wants to be Leader of the Free World and he doesn't even know the basics? Crikey!

Bissage said...

And remember, Jack Bauer doesn't have time to watch "24"!

blake said...

MM said: paddy, I've not seen a movie in a theater in more than a year either.

You're not running for The Highest Office In The Land, dammit!

Actually, what gives me pause is the idea that "Dexter" has a macabre side.

It doesn't "have a macabre side", it's totally and completely macabre in inception and execution. Even the normal human interactions that aren't, by themselves, macabre are basically overshadowed by the fact that there's a serial killer standing right there!

Gullyborg said...

Anyone who loves M*U*S*H obviously has no respect for the military, nor any understanding of service.

The show (and movie) only existed to protest the Vietnam war. Altman was too much of a panzy coward to come right out and make a show set IN Vietnam, so he went back a extra 20 years and found some OTHER war where America didn't win.

His characters are mockeries of service. The generals are always either corrupt or insane. The patriotic career men (and women) are bumbling buffoons with questionable morals. We are meant to be made sympathetic to people who would be completely derilict in their duties in order to avoid service.

MUSH is the most anti-American, anti-Military, unpatriotic show, ever.

No wonder it did well with the liberal media during the end of the Vietnam war, when all we had were 3 network channels and PBS. And to be honest, when I was a 9 year old, I loved to watch it. But that was when I was 9. Now that I am 30 years older and a proud veteran, I have a different idea of what is funny. No doubt McCain, who, as he jokes today was "tied up" when MUSH first hit movie and TV screens, probably also had a different idea about the show than others of the era.

A new version of MUSH today would probably win critical acclaim and many Emmy/Oscar nods, but would completely FLOP with the public - like virually ever war movie made since GWB took office. Mainstream America just doesn't hate the military.

So no, I am not at all surprised that MUSH is so high on Obama's list. It simply reinforces my belief that Obama is an America-hating, military-hating boob who is unfit to be Commander in Chief.

Sloanasaurus said...

Oh Please. Obama's statement is the biggest pander ever. No doubt they came up with those answers at some prior strategy session (which shows will get us the most votes!)

blake said...

A pander? I don't think so. "M*A*S*H" ran for 11 years. (And BTW, the movie never specified where it took place, at least according to Robert Altman. I can't recall, myself.) Obama's the perfect age to consider that his favorite show. ("The Dick Van Dyke" show holds up pretty well for a '60s sitcom, but it's a little odder as a choice.)

I'd say McCain's as more likely to be a pander, except that he probably didn't watch much TV as a kid, and was otherwise occupied as a young adult. So he probably doesn't have the same sort of affinity for TV shows of his youth that the newer TV-raised generations have.

Plus, Dexter and Big Love are edgy choices.

Hector Owen said...

Thanks, blake, for the diasambiguation -- when I saw "Dexter," I thought of this Dexter, the one with the Laboratory, not that other one, whom I would rather not think of at all. And, what Revenant said about "The Wire."

blake said...

Ah, yes, Deeeeexter.

Great cartoon.

Rafique Tucker said...

First off, let me say that the whole pop culture quiz was interesting. Call me naive, but I don't believe either one was pandering. Why would Obama pander by admitting watching Dick van Dyke? What does he gain? I'm sure, for some reason alien to me, he actually enjoys the show.

Gullyborg, M.A.S.H was long before my time, and I never really watched the reruns, but isn't it at all possible for one to like M.A.S.H, without being anti-military? The show lasted for 11 years, and did pretty well from what I understand. The audience had to be larger than left-wing intellectuals and anti-war hippies, don't you think?

Let me also add that 24 is infinitely better than The Contender (which was good, BTW), The Wire may be one of the best executed and gripping dramas ever, and David Palmer is my favorite fictitous President.

MadisonMan said...

but isn't it at all possible for one to like M.A.S.H, without being anti-military?

MO is that the best episodes had little to do with the military at all -- Capt. Tuttle, Adam's Ribs, poker games. Or they were the episodes that were anti-bureaucracy (the incubator). When MASH got preachy about war it was boring.

TJ said...

It helps to read the interview questions, Sloan, rather than Althouse's inaccurate re-frame. Obama was asked about shows he watched as a child. I don't see how there's a pander there. MASH was a really popular show.

Stephen said...

The show lasted for 11 years,

Yeah. There were 2 other channels and they didn't always air stuff as epic as "Kolchak: The Night Stalker."
No internet. No TiVo. No Netflix. No DVDs, VHS, Betamax. No Wii.
There was, however, Pong - at the bowling alley or diner. Arcades came along eventually. As did Earth Shoes.

blake said...

Ah, yes, Pong and "M*A*S*H" were created in the same year.

The Atari 2600 came around in 1977 and dominated by the time the series was canceled in '83.

That's right. The Atari killed "M*A*S*H".