Offering a Hollywood analogy on the Democratic primary race, Sen. Barack Obama told a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania crowd earlier today that running against Sen. Hillary Clinton has been like “a good movie that lasted about a half hour too long.” He and Clinton have been running in the Democratic primary so long, he explained, that they could reverse roles and recite each others’ lines without missing a beat. He added, “I think there are some people who felt like, God, when will this be over?”
What other movie analogies are apt? N.Y. Times columnist Maureen Dowd has written that Hillary bears at least a passing resemblance to (a) Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s unkillable Terminator monster (in the original ’84 version), (b) the 1930s criminal Ma Barker (who was played by Shelly Winters in Bloody Mama) and (c) Glenn Close‘s clinging-psycho-bitch character in Fatal Attraction who “won’t be ignored,” etc.
The only movie character who remind me even vaguely of Barack Obama (or vice versa) is Cleavon Little‘s sheriff in Blazing Saddles. Because he never blew his cool or lost his dignity. I’m trying to think of some white guy characters (guys from any tribe or culture…anyone) who’ve had his personality and temperament and smarts, and I can’t seem to think of any. There must be dozens.