It’s A Wonderful Debate
October 8th, 2008 by Laura Hart
With gloves off and heels on, Gov. Palin stumps in Republican strongholds with wicked glee living up to the “Barracuda” moniker. She evokes Sen. Obama’s pallin’ around with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers as the faithful shout: “treason,” “traitor,” and even “kill them!”
The Palinator’s been cutting a wide swath across Florida these last couple of days tossing out red meat like so many roses. It’s been reported that an African American cameraman was taunted at a rally in Clearwater as racial epithets were lobbed his way. He was no doubt a surrogate for the Democratic candidate and the liberal media providing the haters with a two-fer.
Absent from the second presidential debate between Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama was the acrid smoke and fractured prism reflected in this current media coverage. Bill Ayers and the Keating Five weren’t welcome on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville.
The projectionist switched reels while I was sleeping and the campaign’s feature film went from D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” on the campaign trail to Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” in Nashville’s debate hall.
In this wonderful debate, curmudgeon McCain channeled Mr. Potter (played in the film by Lionel Barrymore) the owner of most of the fictional town of Bedford Falls. Obama’s alter ego George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) takes over the family business, the Bailey Building & Loan Association to continue to help his disadvantaged neighbors just as his father did.
Potter gains control of the Board of Directors vowing to end the “sentimental hogwash” of home loans for the working poor. When Potter absconds with the $8,000 meant for deposit in the Savings & Loan, George Bailey begins his descent and eventual redemption with the help of Clarence the angel.
Through Clarence, George is able to realize the impact of his actions: saving small businesses, rescuing his brother Harry from drowning (Harry goes to war and is awarded the Medal of Honor) and creating affordable housing at Bailey Park as an alternative to the high rents in Potter’s Field. Earlier, in the shadow of the Great Depression, George and his wife Mary lend their honeymoon funds to their neighbors to keep them afloat while Potter says he’ll give them “50 cents on the dollar.”
George Bailey is more community organizer than maverick.
Bailey to Potter: “Just remember this, Mr. Potter: that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?”
I’m guessing that Addie Polk, 90 of Akron, OH has seen this movie dozens of times, I know I have. Polk shot herself in the chest when Sheriff’s deputies came to evict her from the home she’s lived in since 1970. With Polk hospitalized and her plight brought to the fore by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Fannie Mae dismissed its foreclosure action and forgave her mortgage. They’ll also allow her to return to her home after she’s released from the hospital. Maybe Fannie Mae listened to their better angels.
