Alexander Pelosi (Nancy's daughter) hikes along with McCain's "Straight Talk Express" and captures interviews and images of Midwesterners attending Republican gatherings.
It's always difficult to judge a documentary like this. There are no familiar pundits or talking heads or politicians in front of the camera. No prepared speeches. These are just a couple of dozen ordinary people speaking extemporaneously.
The question is how representative they are, what universe are they drawn from. Not one of them seems to have anything resembling a sophisticated position on politics or any of its aspects. Buzz words and phrases abound as substitutes for thought. We've all heard most of them -- "socialism," "Obamanation", "Hitler", and the rest. But this can't possibly be a scientific sample. For one thing, these are super-committed people who are intensely enough motivated to drag their behinds off the couch and out of the house and take themselves and their babies to a Republican rally. For another, we can't have any idea of how many entirely sensible people were interviewed and the footage clipped out and left on the floor of the editing room. We can be reasonably sure the subjects don't represent conservative Republicans, but that these people exist at all is a disturbing realization.
But, judging from what we see, politics isn't the issue that engages these good people anyway. It's something else, much harder to define than, say, commitment to a certain monetary policy. What's most impressive about these interviews is the hatred. They love McCain and Palin but they hate Obama far more.
Some of their facts are plain wrong. Obama won't salute the flag, he's not a full-blooded American, he referred to "my Muslim faith" (three times). Other facts are not so much right or wrong as much as practically incomprehensible in 2008. Obama doesn't deserve to be president because he's a N*****. He's a socialist. He's the Anti-Christ says one perfectly normal looking middle-aged man. Once he's sworn in on the Koran, he'll pull off his mask and invite the terrorists in. He'll start the Russian revolution right here in America.
The interviewees believe that Katie Couric is part of a media conspiracy, that CNN and the rest are "in the tank for Obama." They won't watch the mainstream news media on TV. Their only trusted news source is Fox because it presents the news in a "fair and balanced" way.
Several of the people interviewed predict a revolution in this country in the next few years -- and they may be right. Not in a literal sense but in the sense of procedure -- civil disobedience, jury nullification, impeachment, filibusters like the old days, assassinations, that sort of thing. And if it happens, which any sane person must hope it won't, it will come from some of the people who proudly voice their opinions here.
Underlying all this rhetorical heat is a strain of pathos. These are honest and concerned folks from the Heartland of America. They hold their sentiments so dear that they sometimes weep in expressing them. They boo at the mention of Obama's name, or Harry Reid's or Nancy Pelosi's, "a trifecta of the devil." And when Obama wins, the rallies fall silent. A pretty young woman tearfully tells Pelosi that the people have spoken and we'll have to get together and hold our heads up and do the best we can. We get the impression that she doesn't represent the others at the rally. We get the sense that their anger has changed to an abject rage. If anyone doubts it, I suggest checking out the comments on Obama on one of the news boards -- Newsvine or Buzz Up.
If Alex Pelosi was conning any of these people into making fools of themselves, there's no sign of it. On the contrary, she seems at times to be genuinely puzzled and asks if they'd like to clarify their statements. She's polite and sympathetic to an old woman who is saying the rosary at a rally, praying that McCain will win. If the subjects of these brief interviews were to watch the film and ask if they'd been tricked or humiliated or misrepresented, I honestly believe they'd say no, that they were proud of their opinions and happy to have a chance to express them on national TV.
Nothing in the film is truly surprising except the depth of hatred for Obama. I've lived through the turbulent 1960s and other passing periods of national distress, but I've never in my life seen such despair on the part of so many people.
It's always difficult to judge a documentary like this. There are no familiar pundits or talking heads or politicians in front of the camera. No prepared speeches. These are just a couple of dozen ordinary people speaking extemporaneously.
The question is how representative they are, what universe are they drawn from. Not one of them seems to have anything resembling a sophisticated position on politics or any of its aspects. Buzz words and phrases abound as substitutes for thought. We've all heard most of them -- "socialism," "Obamanation", "Hitler", and the rest. But this can't possibly be a scientific sample. For one thing, these are super-committed people who are intensely enough motivated to drag their behinds off the couch and out of the house and take themselves and their babies to a Republican rally. For another, we can't have any idea of how many entirely sensible people were interviewed and the footage clipped out and left on the floor of the editing room. We can be reasonably sure the subjects don't represent conservative Republicans, but that these people exist at all is a disturbing realization.
But, judging from what we see, politics isn't the issue that engages these good people anyway. It's something else, much harder to define than, say, commitment to a certain monetary policy. What's most impressive about these interviews is the hatred. They love McCain and Palin but they hate Obama far more.
Some of their facts are plain wrong. Obama won't salute the flag, he's not a full-blooded American, he referred to "my Muslim faith" (three times). Other facts are not so much right or wrong as much as practically incomprehensible in 2008. Obama doesn't deserve to be president because he's a N*****. He's a socialist. He's the Anti-Christ says one perfectly normal looking middle-aged man. Once he's sworn in on the Koran, he'll pull off his mask and invite the terrorists in. He'll start the Russian revolution right here in America.
The interviewees believe that Katie Couric is part of a media conspiracy, that CNN and the rest are "in the tank for Obama." They won't watch the mainstream news media on TV. Their only trusted news source is Fox because it presents the news in a "fair and balanced" way.
Several of the people interviewed predict a revolution in this country in the next few years -- and they may be right. Not in a literal sense but in the sense of procedure -- civil disobedience, jury nullification, impeachment, filibusters like the old days, assassinations, that sort of thing. And if it happens, which any sane person must hope it won't, it will come from some of the people who proudly voice their opinions here.
Underlying all this rhetorical heat is a strain of pathos. These are honest and concerned folks from the Heartland of America. They hold their sentiments so dear that they sometimes weep in expressing them. They boo at the mention of Obama's name, or Harry Reid's or Nancy Pelosi's, "a trifecta of the devil." And when Obama wins, the rallies fall silent. A pretty young woman tearfully tells Pelosi that the people have spoken and we'll have to get together and hold our heads up and do the best we can. We get the impression that she doesn't represent the others at the rally. We get the sense that their anger has changed to an abject rage. If anyone doubts it, I suggest checking out the comments on Obama on one of the news boards -- Newsvine or Buzz Up.
If Alex Pelosi was conning any of these people into making fools of themselves, there's no sign of it. On the contrary, she seems at times to be genuinely puzzled and asks if they'd like to clarify their statements. She's polite and sympathetic to an old woman who is saying the rosary at a rally, praying that McCain will win. If the subjects of these brief interviews were to watch the film and ask if they'd been tricked or humiliated or misrepresented, I honestly believe they'd say no, that they were proud of their opinions and happy to have a chance to express them on national TV.
Nothing in the film is truly surprising except the depth of hatred for Obama. I've lived through the turbulent 1960s and other passing periods of national distress, but I've never in my life seen such despair on the part of so many people.
