Political TV specials: Tis the season
Decision time is drawing near in the presidential race, so it's not surprising to see a number of political-themed progams arriving.
Below, reviews of "Kids Pick the President," the 2008 edition of "Frontline: The Choice," a revisit to the 1992 campaign documentary "The War Room," and a beautiful little film about our war dead, "Section 60."
A quadrennial tradition returns with the Linda Ellerbee special, "Kids Pick the President" (8 p.m. CT Sunday, Nickelodeon) Ellerbee, who ought to be given a presidential debate to moderate one of these days, compiled video questions from youngsters across the country, then got the two candidates to sit down and answer them.
For viewers who have grown tired of attack politics, Ellerbee offers an alternative -- albeit a very brief one that's heavily edited for time (21 minutes with commercials). Still, the kids make the candidates answer some surprisingly tough questions, like how they would address the rich-poor divide and global warming.
And the points of view represented here aren't your CNN-issue talking heads. One young questioner wants to know how the candidates would deal with illegal immigrants "without harming their families." Then there's the boy who wants to know this from both John McCain and Barack Obama: "Have you ever been picked last?"
"The Choice 2008," another election tradition, airs as a special two-hour "Frontline" at 8 p.m. on KCPT and KTWU. (Check PBS listings in your area.)
Never is there a better indictment of the terrible ruts that political beat reporters get themselves into than the fact that I, an aficionado of political news, invariably come away from one of these "Frontline" productions learning all kinds of things that I never heard or read in hundreds of hours of TV viewing and Web browsing.
Case in point: A terrific little story from this edition of "The Choice" tells of one of the first committee meetings the freshman senator from Illinois attended. It was the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and it was to hold confirmation hearings for Secretary of State designate Condoleezza Rice.
As the meeting dragged on and on, the committee's chair launched into one of his signature filibusters, sucking all the oxygen out of the hearing room with his unstoppable rhetoric. Senator Obama thoughtfully scribbled a note on a piece of paper ("Frontline" somehow found a photo to perfectly match the moment) and somberly handed it to an aide.
The note said, "Shoot. Me. Now."
The yammering committee chairman was Joe Biden.
"Return of the War Room" (8 p.m. CT Monday, Sundance Channel). Remember the documentary "The War Room," about the young turks who strategized Bill Clinton's campaign in the 1992 presidential election? Even if you don't, political consultants around the world do. Campaigns from Tony Blair to Nelson Mandela formed their own "war rooms" after seeing this documentary, which captured the discipline, acumen and esprit de corps of the Clintonistas as they managed their man to victory against what seemed at times staggering odds.
The filmmakers behind "The War Room" put together this very timely sort-of-sequel to that groundbreaking documentary. The fast-paced follow-up interviews many of the stars of that first film -- George Stephanopoulos, Mandy Grunwald, Dee Dee Myers, Rajin' Cajun James Carville and others -- and to some degree, they spend much of the film reliving the good old days during what they all agree was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
What makes "Return of the War Room" more than nostalgia, indeed, makes it remarkably relevant to this moment, is the way the filmmakers weave in footage from the current campaign and, in the process, show us how similar Obama 2008 was to Clinton 1992. Personal issues dominated both campaigns early on, but eventually gave way to a fall home stretch focused on issues relating to the faltering economy and a Republican who was unable to run away from the Bush record (in John McCain's case, Bush 43).
Pollster Frank Luntz, who works with Republicans, appears in the film to suggest that Obama is in many ways simply imitating Clinton. In his mastery of language and imagery, he is trying to assure people that a change at this point in time is the right thing to do, and that they need not fear him. Obama's really good at this, Luntz admits, but he adds, "Nobody did it better than Clinton."
"Section 60" (8 p.m. CT Monday, HBO) would, in other circumstances, not be considered a political film. But here's the deal: Since the war in Afghanistan began, news photographers have been banned from filming the flag-draped coffins as they arrive for burial through the Air Force base in Dover, Del. The reasons were never explicitly stated, but they were clear enough: The Bush Administration didn't want images of war dead to achieve the kind of purchase in Americans' minds that they did during the war in Vietnam.
So now we have "Section 60," a beautiful little film about the burial area in Arlington National Cemetery reserved for the fallen in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Afghanistan conflict. They are a cross-section of America, if this documentary is any indication. And their survivors come often to this pastoral corner of suburban Washington, D.C., to grieve and remember them. We should do the same, especially as we contemplate the choice of our next commander-in-chief.
