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Friday, May 23, 2008

I Can’t Even Watch the Commercials

posted by on May 23 at 9:50 AM

Salon on HBO’s Recount

“Recount,” director Jay Roach and screenwriter Danny Strong’s first-rate docudrama about the disputed 2000 presidential election, is almost too painful to watch.

I won’t watch it—I can’t watch the freakin’ commercials; whenever they come on I lunge for the remote and change the channel. Laura Dern’s creepy incarnation of Katherine Harris is spooky enough to keep me away from the teevee. Knowing how this tragedy ends, knowing that the Bush team would ultimately steal the election (with an assist from Joe Lieberman!), knowing that Bush would run the country off the rails, I couldn’t possibly curl up in front of the teevee and watch this flick. If I’m going to watch anything about Bush stealing the 2000 election, I’ll watch that egg hit Bush’s limo during his inaugural “parade.” I’ll watch that over and over and over again…

But Recount? No thanks. I’d rather watch Real World.

RSS icon Comments

1

I'm with you, Dan. My brother was at the inauguration and remembers being yelled at by women in furs wearing cowboy hats. Delightful.

Posted by Balt-O-Matt | May 23, 2008 10:09 AM
2

Plus, what's-his-fuck's in it. I didn't even watch the whole commercial. As soon as they were like, "Let's just count the votes and stuff", I had to get up and leave because I was already punching people.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | May 23, 2008 10:21 AM
3

A-frickin-men. It's not even a matter of "too soon." This will always be painful.

Posted by Hot Pink Sonja | May 23, 2008 10:23 AM
4

well, if you do watch it, you'll see me in it as an extra!

Posted by konstantconsumer | May 23, 2008 10:26 AM
5

I hear the movie's so good that the viewer starts wishing for a different ending knowing full well what is to come. Another thing that was hard to get through was Jeffrey Toobin's book, Too Close to Call, from 2002. I remember getting angry all over again reading it.

Posted by Bauhaus | May 23, 2008 10:30 AM
6

It's like reading the Taylor Branch series on America in the King years. Or visiting Manzanar. It's painful, but you have to do it, and you have to keep talking about it so the rest of the country doesn't forget. And to let the perps know that you remember.

Posted by kk | May 23, 2008 10:40 AM
7

Get over it, he won fair and square under the rules. He had more electoral votes.

The real problem was the razor close vote (thanks Ralph!).

The Supreme Court was in a no win situation. Historically, the court is hands off on political matters. Their holding was predictable.

Maybe there was funny business in Florida or other states, but that is always the case. If Gore would have won, there would have been the same allegations against Dems rigging the vote in other states.

The problem was the vote was razor close.
The system is not perfect, and it was amplified by the close votes. No one stole the election.

Posted by Medina | May 23, 2008 10:56 AM
8

Stop being a pussy. With November 08 upon us with who-knows-what in the mix, people NEED to watch it.

Posted by Cat in Chicago | May 23, 2008 11:08 AM
9

We're supposed to be living in an electoral democracy, Medina. My vote is supposed to count. It's supposed to mean something. If I'd been living in Brevard County and thought I'd voted for Gore but had actually voted for Pat Buchanan, or if I'd been denied the right to vote because I was on a convicted felons list when in fact I wasn't a convicted felon, or if my punch card hadn't punched through because the tray was filled with chad, I'm supposed to "get over it?"

No, there won't be any getting over it. Sorry.

Posted by Bauhuas | May 23, 2008 11:09 AM
10

This is why I couldn't participate in the Sandra Day O'Connor hagiography upon her retirement. She voted with the five, acquiescing to a terribly anti-democratic decision.

Posted by Jonathan Golob | May 23, 2008 11:21 AM
11

salon has a great review of this flick. EVERYONE should watch it. it was basically a coup. only vapid poseurs watch shit like the Real World.

Posted by SeMe | May 23, 2008 11:45 AM
12

Fucking Spacey.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | May 23, 2008 11:57 AM
13

Who plays Ralph?

Posted by Toe Tag | May 23, 2008 12:41 PM
14

In Newsweek, they talked to William Daley about the movie. He said basically all elections are screwed up, and we only notice it when it's close. He also said there was almost no chance in hell the Republicans were going to lose the recount since they controlled the state government.

I'm with the "get over it" crowd. I did.

Posted by nabridie | May 24, 2008 5:35 AM

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