Flashbacks

I've been on the internet off and on most of the day, trying to stay abreast of the political news as the presidential campaign drags to a conclusion. Some of the things that are going on are stunning. Every election since 1988 has been a stinkbomb, and they just keep getting worse every four years. I thought Clinton vs Bush I in 1992 was ugly, and Bush II vs Gore in 2000 was like an unending nightmare. With no Bush in sight, I foolishly believed that maybe 2008 would be a throwback to the last decent election, Carter vs Ford in 1976. No such luck.

One of my favorite movies of all time is the original version of The Manchurian Candidate, released in 1962. I saw it when it first came out and being a teenager at the time, didn't really understand the political context. Later I read the novel by Richard Condon, which was denser and more complex than the film version. Fortunately, the movie is shown on TCM and has been issued on DVD, so I've seen it several times as an adult and it's become one of those classic pictures I can watch repeatedly.

The Manchurian Candidate was brought to mind this afternoon because of the character played by James Gregory, Senator Johnny Iselin, a takeoff on Joe McCarthy. Iselin's a heavy drinker who is easily manipulated by his wife, one of the nastiest bitches ever portrayed onscreen. He's always getting in front of TV cameras and proclaiming he has evidence of communist infiltration in offices of the federal government. There are a lot of real John Iselins around these days and they're all Republicans.