Going after the Commander-in-Chief (the show)

July 29, 2005

I have to admit, I’m mystified by the conservative reaction to a new TV show, which will debut in the fall, called “Commander-in-Chief.” The ABC show, starring Geena Davis, will focus on a woman vice president — and political independent — being elevated to the Oval Office after the elected president dies of a massive stroke.

The right isn’t happy. Jonah Goldberg said a “whole season of ‘I am woman hear me roar’ plotlines will dull the pants off people, and undermine feminist arguments to boot.” Kathryn Jean Lopez, Warren Bell, and John Podhoretz have similar concerns.

Here’s a conservative blogger (via Peter Daou) who sees a broader conspiracy afoot.

[A] lot of people (OK, me) are saying that this show is a nefarious plot to advance the notion of a Hillary Clinton presidency. The thought is that if we, the submoronic television viewers, get used to seeing a woman president on TV, we’ll be more inclined to vote for one in 2008. This is what the TV industry thinks. They don’t view us as being rational actors, able to vote for a President based on our own reasoning, but instead as sheep to be herded and trained.

The same blogger suggests a co-star on the program resembles Barack Obama, which may be part of a plot to prepare the electorate for “the junior senator from Illinois as the Vice President.”

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, in its daily alert to supporters, said yesterday that Geena Davis’s character’s name, Mackenzie Allen, “sounds remarkably, poetically like” Hillary Clinton, which apparently is proof that the show is conspiring to help HRC in 2008. (I don’t hear the similarity, but Dobson’s allies are probably better at these things than I am.)

I suspect there were network execs who thought the idea of a show featuring a woman president wouldn’t cause too much consternation with 21st century conservatives. Guess they underestimated today’s right.

The big winner? ABC, which has to be thrilled to get this much publicity.

I gotta love this quote The thought is that if we, the submoronic television viewers and this one They don’t view us as being rational actors, able to vote for a President based on our own reasoning, but instead as sheep to be herded and trained.

I thought that this was what the Republicans depended on, an electorate of uninformed voters.

  • What you said, Mark!

    But I love the unsubstantiated conspiracy laid out in such detail. Almost like they had an insider. Really, who pays these people to come up with this?!

  • Mackenzie Allen, “sounds remarkably, poetically like” Hillary Clinton

    I can see that. Look, there’s an “A” in each of their first names and and “L” in each of their last names. What more do you need?

    The more I think about it, more certain I am that our own Analytical Liberal is beind this conspiracy.

  • You know, it might not have been the intention of the producers to inoculate the viewing public to the idea of a woman president but it just might have that effect – especially if she comes across as strong and decisive (i.e., anti-stereotypic).

    That bit by Dobson is great. Same numbers of syllables=poetic. By that standard, assbag sounds remarkably, poetically like Dobson.

  • Sorry Ed,
    It can’t be our Analytical Liberal unless he pronounces his name something like “an-lit-cal lib-rul.” AL’s name has to have the same number of syllables as Mackenzie Allen! 🙂

  • These guys never stop, do they? No wonder they’re
    winning.

    I can’t wait for the program to start, so we can,
    watch the right wingers actually keeping score
    of her political bias, when she’s supposed to be
    “independent.” I can just see it – charges that she’s
    too liberal, demands that they alter the scripts to
    put in more conservative positions etc.

    They’ll probably hire Frederick Mann, stealth analyst,
    to keep track of the liberal/conservative leanings on
    the show.

  • Aaarrrggghhh! Everything is a liberal plot! They’re all out to get us!

    What would these people think if The Carol Burnett Show was on today, Are they all fools? Delusional? Idiots?

    Am I losing touch? Were we (democrats/liberals) this wacko when we were in the majority?

    Is this just the typical reaction of people with marginal support worried about their dominance?

    Sorry had to rant!

  • Why do white Republican males fear smart independent women who have power? Could it be that the more power women have, the less power they have?

  • I dunno, I think it’s a conspiracy to seat Elizabeth Dole in the White House.

    Seriously, all the huffing and puffing conservatives make over this just further exposes their mysogyny (sp?) and makes them look worse. Kudos to ABC to crafting a TV show that makes their true colors (green with envy) to shine.

  • Ed,

    You give me too much credit … I only wish that I had either conceived the show’s story to pitch to ABC, or else come up with this conspiracy theory the righties are pushing!

    [hangs head in shame]

    P.S. Guess that explains why I am still poor but not yet bat-shit crazy! 🙂

  • LynChi – Me thinketh thou hast struck a nerve. When we have control freaks in office we just end up with freaks that control, or something like that.

  • I thought the Left were the ones constanting coming up with conspiracy theories, the Right has the “facts”, right? This is humorous beyond belief. My only problem is that the previews look not so good and the country may not become inoculated with the thought of a woman president.

  • Heck, if the show really takes off, why don’t we start pushing a Martin Sheen/Geena Davis ticket for ’08? If an actor can make it as president, why not do the same for both jobs? They’ll have tons of experience in the White House already, which Reagan never had before he got the part and somehow made it work. They can appoint Glenn Close to be the National Security Advisor, Michael Chiklis as the head of the Secret Service, Avery Brooks as head of the CIA, and James Earl Jones as Secretary of State.

    We live in times where the real-life drama runs clear off the scale anyway, might as well have some genuine professionals in charge of it for a change.

  • You’ll find crazy conspiracies on the far left and on the far right. If you go far enough either way both sides start having delusions of black helicopters. It’s part of my circle theory, that the left-right spectrum is a circle rather than a line. Moderate/centrists are on the top, the partisans on the left and right sides, and the whackjobs on the bottom. The problem is that it seems the ones running the country are the whackjobs on the lower right side of the circle, rather than anything on the upper portion.

  • By that standard, assbag sounds remarkably, poetically like Dobson.

    ahhh the sweet sound of poetry.

    James Earl Jones as Secretary of State.

    “Chirac, join with me and together we can rule Iraq. Don’t underestimate the power of the dark side, Chirac.”

  • Actually, the names are near rhymes but near rhyme for Dobson would be more like “villian”

    otherwise there is poetically “Dobson, dumb son of a bitch.

    but seriously this is from the land wingnuttia conspiracy

  • I predict that if this show lasts into a second season the producers will be forced to cast Fred Thompson as an avuncular character who articulates and sanitizes the views of the Right while writing Cowboy Poetry in his spare time.

  • LynChi, Misogyny eliminates half the competition – the half which is better educated, harder working, less bull-headed, more compassionate, more nurturing, more patient, more altruistic, more pacifist, longer lived. Okay, that’s stereotyping on a grand scale. Still true though.

    I’m not really sure the top Repugnants are misogynists though. I doubt they’ve given it that much thought. What we see as hatred of women (or blacks, gays, intellectuals, artists, etc.) is merely a corollary or consequence of their despising anyone who doesn’t frequently kiss their puffy butts.

  • You’ve GOT to love this circular logic!!

    1. Conservatives see Geena Davis as a female president

    2. They assume (without ANY evidence) that it’s obviously a nefarious Hollywood liberal conspiracy to pave the way for Hillary ’08

    3. Finally, they ridicule Hollywood for coming up with such a dumb conspiracy, even though there was never any conspiracy to begin with! “Further evidence that Hollywood is out of touch!” they scream.

    LOL.

  • Religious wingers like Dobson need the left to be one great big liberal/gay/abortion conspiracy. From Sponge Bob to Geena Davis is no big leap to them. Without this dire conspiracy to undermine “American values” and drag the whole shebang into Satan’s grasp, their whole faith based universe falls apart.

    Laughingly ridiculous …but dangerous.

  • It’s a wonder they let Patty Duke live. She did a series years ago where she played…(drumroll, wait for it)…the first Female President of the U.S.

    It was a good show, as I recall, but VERY short-lived. I think the Dem’s were in power at the time, though. It was probably an early plot to get Pat Schroeder to become president, though. What ARE the R’s worried about again? Oh, yeah. Their jobs. Good. Let ’em worry.

  • There is no doubt what so ever that this is a veiled attempt to desensitize voters. It’s a flagrant attempt to soften us all up to the notion of a Hillary presidency. This is not a conspiracy thing, or a right wing kookification – it is so patently obvious, not to mention wholly consistent with a long history of liberal television shinnanegans. I pray so badly that Condi runs, thereby extinguishing claims that anybody who opposes Hillary for president is a neocon, dinosaur, or a sexist. Oh it would be so great to remove that argument, and do them one better – with an African American Female Republican – who by the way, would run intellectual circles around the “smartest woman in the world”. Oh god Condi, run. Run Condi Run !!!!

  • 1 – Do you think this film will
    a) Help Hillary ascertain the presidency ?
    b) Hurt Hillary’s chances to ascertain the presidency ?
    c) Make no difference ?

    Answer: A.

    2 – Do you think that ABC
    a) has considered the effect this film will have on Hillary’s chances to win the presidency ?
    b) is indifferent, and hasnt considered the effect it will have on Hillary’s presidential run ?

    Answer: A

    3 – Do you think Hillary is
    a) Happy that this film will air ?
    b) Unhappy that this film will air ?
    c) Indifferent towards the film ?

    Answer A.

    It is obvious that ABC has considered the effects of this film on Hillary’s presidential run, and that they hope to help her chances. It is also a given that Hillary is thrilled about this film.

    There is no doubt that ABC is trying to soften us all up for queen Hillary’s presidential run. I hate her, and I hate her politics. She is the biggest fucking phony out there, trying to sound moderate because she knows that if she ran on her honest beliefs – she can not win. She thinks everybody is stupid, like we dont detect her decieptful chicaneries. I hate this woman. I hope Condi Rice runs and destroys the disingenuous nonsense that Hillary and her mingions will promote – that her political opponents are all sexists who cant deal with a female president.

    It’s not her gender, it’s her politics and her hypocisy. P-H-O-N-Y – She *never* sounds sincere, always calculated. She also used my home state of NY as a gateway to the White House.

    Fuck You Hillary – You are not fooling anybody.

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