I’m surprised there’s been little media reaction to the casual comment President Obama made the other day about Where the Wild Things Are: The president was visiting a local public school, he’s known to be a big fan of Maurice Sendak’s book, he’s screened the movie, and, as reported in The Washington Post, he told his kid constituency, “it’s worth seeing.” Given the dust stirred up by adults when Obama made a speech to schoolchildren last month on the apolitical subject of studying hard and doing one’s homework, it’s easy to imagine a grown-up anti-Wild Things faction criticizing this Presidential film review as a partisan attack on moviegoers who don’t like stories about furry monsters.
You know what other movie President Obama really likes? This one:
Shocking, right? One of his favorite movies is Casablanca, about a woman married to a war hero, only she’s in love with a saloon keeper. Of course, the picture is one of the greats of all times, and it would be awesome to watch it again with the President and First Lady in the White House screening room, all of us sobbing happily together when Victor Laszlo, played by Paul Henreid, starts singing “La Marseillaise” in Rick’s cafe. But given enough free time, I’m sure some faction, somewhere, can come up with a reason why Obama’s taste in movies (he also loves One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Godfather I and II, and Lawrence of Arabia) reflects a dangerous tolerance for…mobsters, deserts, and sadistic nurses.
Oh, and furry monsters, too.
Photo credit: Everett Collection
Come ON, people will always attack any President over the littlest stupid non-issues, no matter who he (or someday she?) is. People of the opposing party will find a way. This isn’t a new thing that just started with Obama’s presidency, you know. I get tired of people being overly defensive about Obama, just as I tired of other people doing the same about Bush. It sucks that some people would stoop to the levels they do to try to hurt a president’s image, but this kind of preemptive snark doesn’t help anything.
I’ve been doing my Presidential research: George W. Bush loved “Field of Dreams.” And Bill Clinton is crazy about “High Noon.”
Probably no one other then you just now made anything out of it because there’s nothing to make out of it. Come on, can’t the President enjoy a movie without making it into some is it politically correct for him to have liked it moment. Stupid
Susan, I agree!
I hate to be the bearers of bad news, but Obama is enjoying the movie without anyone making an issue out of it…wait, except for a liberal trying to use it to bash people’s response to Obama’s speech to students. Hmmmm….wonder what’s next on the “agenda…”
I actually can appreciate the post and absolutely wouldn’t be surprised if his movie choices were brought up. You can say that this happens to every president but I feel that’s inaccurate. The Republican Party is in extreme attack mode and Obama opposers will use anything they can think of to harass him.
Of course- and the Democratic Party never criticized anything during the Bush administration. It’s so sad when people see things through tunnel vision.
Not even close. Despite the election scandal when he first took office I think people treated him pretty fairly (one might even say too fairly, considering). Before 9/11 people would joke about the occasional Bush-ism and the fact he hardly ever left Camp David but it was nothing short of the usual grief presidents are prone to.Then when 9/11 happened the whole country rallied behind Bush and our support didn’t waiver until the repeated blunders were just too hard to ignore.
TD:
Seriously, scandal? And fair? Come on, this can’t seriously be a real comment. I thought it was generally understood that liberals hated Bush and took every chance they could get to rip him, kill him in effigy, and renounce his Presidency. In fact, I thought it was almost a badge of honor they wore. I never knew there were people out there that actually denied the abuse dished out to him, his VP and their families over the past 8 years. Whether or not you think it was deserved, with the wealth of examples available with the simple “Bush Nazi” google search, it’s hard to believe that you’re seriously denying its existence.
No connection, but Wild Things has been dying at the box office every day this week.
Wait, why aren’t other people understanding the tone of this article? Isn’t it pointing out that so many people make a big deal out of nothing, so it’s surprising that this nothing story slipped through the cracks?
Where the Wild Things Are was written by a gay Jew of immigrant parents. Honestly, I’m shocked Glenn Beck isn’t applying the Visine drops right now.
No mention of “Do the Right Thing”? Barack and Michelle went to see it on their first date.
President giving a speech to kids that said write a letter to create goals that help me (i.e. my agenda) is the same as saying he liked a movie? Wha…wha…what??? Seriously, I’ve been debating liberals for quite some time and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a poor comparison.
Perhaps no one knew he recommended the movie because his teleprompter broke and they wouldn’t allow him in front of a camera without it. Or perhaps after he insulted conservatives as mindless sheep, they cut the feed so he wouldn’t say any more stupid things like the retard comment on Letterman. Or perhaps no one reported on this comment because he made it in one of the missing 7 states that he talked of and no one else knows where they are. Or maybe after the largest number of press conferences at this time in a President’s term has worn thin on everyone and we’ve moved past trying to pretend this is Camelot. Or perhaps no one talked about it because they didn’t want to attach the movie’s ticket sales to his crashing poll numbers.
Wow… Way to miss the point.
The point being that right wingers haven’t used this completely harmless and apolitical comment against the President even though they used the President’s speech to students against him, which was like, totally harmless also? It was just a poor attempt at a hack liberal writer making an attempt to both shine a good light on his messiah while bashing ignorant right wingers for their nerve to say something negative about the One.
I didn’t miss the point, you’re just attempting to ignore it and I’m not allowing you the comfort of doing so.
I enjoyed reading these fascinating interchanges. I will put this website on my favorites. It is interesting to see which films our presidents find entertaining. I will review these films with renewed interest! Thank you Andrew Breitbart for this entire website.
LOL, this is like how to make the irrelevant relevant by tossing in the President, how utterly mundane!
So if Obama says he likes a movie we have to hold a press conference, but if the Reagans put their seal of apporval on “E.T.” no one makes a big whoop at all.
President Obama has great taste in films, what can you say. Books also (both Song of Solomon and Team of Rivals are fantastic).