The Candidates and Television

Via Robert Farley, I hadn't realized TV Guide had asked the leading candidates to name their favorite television show back in November:

Hillary watches Grey’s Anatomy, Barack Obama likes The Wire (for the record, that’s the right answer), and John Edwards says his viewing guilty pleasure is "Fred Thompson on Law & Order."

Of course it does give one pause. The press, myself included, loves The Wire but it's not something the mass public has ever embraced. Is America ready for a Wire-watching President?

Comments

Can we afford to take a chance on a Wire-watching President?

How can we afford not to?

Posted by southpaw | January 7, 2008 9:05 AM

If Edwards is going to pick Law & Order, he at least could have gone with Michael Moriarty

Posted by hlah | January 7, 2008 9:05 AM

Grey's Anatomy is awful. I just lost more respect for Clinton (I didn't think that would be possible).

Posted by thehova | January 7, 2008 9:06 AM

Obama watches "The Wire"?!!

Sheesh...could he be any more perfect?

Posted by Jenna | January 7, 2008 9:07 AM

It figures that the figurehead for the soccer moms would pick a show that, even though set in a Seattle Hospital, has more black physicians than Asian American. Maybe it demonstrates her sheltered life in that she does not realize what a fantasy land tha "Grey's Anatomy" function in.

Posted by superdestroyer | January 7, 2008 9:18 AM

Will Obama give Carcetti a cabinet post? Is he willing to denounce Clay Davis?

Posted by vanya | January 7, 2008 9:19 AM

Obama watches "The Wire"?!!
Sheesh...could he be any more perfect?

No, he couldn't be any more perfect. After learning this I have to support him.

Posted by jonnybutter | January 7, 2008 9:27 AM

I have heard there is a TV program called "The Wire." I was hoping that this blog existed to help me learn more about this series.

Posted by El Cid | January 7, 2008 9:30 AM

The Grey's answer sounds overly calculated (why not Private Practice, then?)... while The Wire choice seems offbeat and ahead of the curve (and may be every bit as calculated... but doesn't feel it. If there's a wrong answer, though, it belongs to Edwards, who manages to remind northerners that he, like Thompson is very Southern, and that he's picked the lawyer on the lawyer show who objects to the crusading ADA's cries for social justice.

Posted by weboy | January 7, 2008 9:33 AM

I guess that damages the theory that watching The Wire leads to bleak hopelessness and despair.

Posted by Dan Kervick | January 7, 2008 9:35 AM

Obama/Bunny Colvin '08.

And somebody might get their wish on Carcetti, seeing as Edwards looks a little bit like him.

Posted by norbizness | January 7, 2008 9:38 AM

I think that Edwards was just trying to get an amusing dig in at Thompson to remind everyone he's an actor.

Everyone knows that the best season of L&O was when Jerry Orbach, Chris Noth, Sam Watterson, and Jill Hennessy were on the show.

Posted by Tyro | January 7, 2008 9:40 AM

I think it's worth imagining a certain scenario. Imagine the Democrats do rally around Obama. Imagine the Wire-loving media invests as heavily in him as I think we all know they will if he's the nominee -- and then imagine he loses. I seriously think certain segments of Grey's-Anatomy-watching American political life will become completely unhinged. I can imagine the fear of this social unraveling actually aiding Obama enormously in 2008.

Posted by Slippery Pete | January 7, 2008 9:43 AM

If you go back and look at the original article, Hilary comes off even worse. American Idol? I will never vote for her. Romney says his favorite show is "Lost" which makes sense, inside Mitt is a sci fi geek trying to get out. I didn't see Rudy, but I can only assume he would say "The Shield."

Posted by vanya | January 7, 2008 9:46 AM

So Obama has an HBO subscription. And the plain old TV the rest of us watch isn't good enough for him? Could be another windsurfing story.

Posted by Virginia | January 7, 2008 9:54 AM

Hillary's answer is like if Edwards said "The Mullets." How can anyone watch "Grey's Anatomy" for ten minutes without wanting to impale themselves on chopsticks in their eyes? That shows both a tremendous lack of judgment and a lack of a gag reflex. And American Idol and Dancing with the Stars? Didn't this women go to Wellesley and Yale Law School? What does she do afterward, dangle her keys in front of her face? SHINY! Perform her own lobotomy? I bet she's an ABBA fan. Does she own the "Mama Mia!" soundtrack as well?

"Barack Obama tells TV Guide that his favorite TV character of all time is "SpongeBob SquarePants, because SpongeBob is the show I watch with my daughters.""

Those girls are never going to need to take drugs after watching that. It's already trippy and Jungian enough.

"John Edwards is a fan of Boston Legal, and tells TV Guide that his viewing guilty pleasure is "Fred Thompson on Law & Order.""

In addition, The Practice, Without a Trace, Cold Case, NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, LA Laws and Murder She Wrote, all chased down with a gulp of metamucil. He gets CBS fed write into his brain.

"John McCain lists Prison Break among his favorite TV shows "because as a fellow prisoner, I always dreamed and plotted how I would break out of the Hanoi Hilton," he tells TV Guide."

That's just depressing. He probably just thinks the main guy is hot. To cheer himself up, he probably watches Law & Order: SVU (now with only half of the rape!) and goads a midget into headbutting him in the balls.

"Fred Thompson's favorite TV show is SportsCenter. He tells TV Guide, "I always need to stay up on my Titans, Vols, Vanderbilt and, of course, my Memphis Tigers.""

He lies. Thompson is too lazy to turn on the TV and too tired to stay awake when someone turns it on for him.

"Dennis Kucinich is a fan of late-night TV, citing The Tonight Show, Late Show, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Saturday Night Live as his favorites."

Another liar. Kucinich's wife doesn't let him stay up past 10, otherwise he might go outside and see another UFO.

"When I get a chance to watch TV, it's usually late in the evening," he tells TV Guide. "Those shows have brilliant writers. It's just great to watch them." He also adds that he doesn't mind being the punch line of their jokes. "It's hilarious. I take what I do seriously, but I don't take myself seriously."

Neither do we, Denny, neither do we.

Posted by Reality Man | January 7, 2008 10:06 AM

So Obama's favorite show is about hopelessness and the failure of our modern institutions to work for everyday Americans?

You can say that the man has good taste, though!

Posted by Rob | January 7, 2008 10:07 AM

Rob,

Not only is the show about hopelessness, high crime, and governmental failure. But the setting is one of the bluest counties in the entire nation and a city that has had majority black rule for over 20 years.

The plot line is something that Senator Obama probably does not want to remind the nation about.

Posted by superdestroyer | January 7, 2008 10:17 AM

Whatever her other flaws, Clinton is an intelligent person. I can't believe she actually likes American Idol and Gray's Anatomy. So, I'm guessing she just had some campaign worker tell her what were the most popular shows on television.

This is just another case in which her campaign is trapped in 90's era conceptions of campaign messaging, producing messages that are a bit too transparently crafted and inauthentic for more sophisticated 2008 political audiences.

Posted by Dan Kervick | January 7, 2008 10:30 AM

Romney says his favorite show is "Lost" which makes sense, inside Mitt is a sci fi geek trying to get out.

And telling, because every JJ Abrams show starts off well, then goes downhill because he doesn't know how to resolve the narrative, so instead fucks off to do something else.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | January 7, 2008 10:40 AM

Obama has taste.

Posted by kay | January 7, 2008 10:50 AM

The press, myself included, loves The Wire

Gee, it's almost like Obama is actively trying to court the press.

In a completely unrelated story, which has nothing at all to do with Obama's efforts to court the press, a Harvard study showed that Obama got overwhelmingly positive press coverage, in sharp contrast to just about every other candidate.

As I said, those two things certainly have nothing to do with each other.

Posted by Al | January 7, 2008 10:52 AM

Dan Kervick, I know a lot of intelligent, middle-aged professionals, and they almost invariably have very base tastes in popular culture, because they just don't have the time to cultivate better tastes and more complex interests.

Rather, they consume what everyone else around them is consuming, because they're too busy with their professional lives to seek out anything else. Hillary's banal taste in pop culture is about what I would expect.

Posted by Tyro | January 7, 2008 11:00 AM

Mitt Romney tells TV Guide he is a fan of Lost because it has "a very captivating plot, and if you live a busy life, escape is always welcome."

Wow. There's actually something I like about Mitt Romney.

Posted by Peter H | January 7, 2008 11:26 AM

I assume most Americans haven't embraced it because it's on HBO which is kind of pricey.

Myself, I'd pick Stargate and several anime series myself so yeah. Geek.

Posted by MNPundit | January 7, 2008 11:29 AM

If one of them had said Battlestar Galactica, then I'd be impressed.

Posted by Ginger Yellow | January 7, 2008 12:26 PM

Tom Tancredo watches "nothing in particular. He really likes the History Channel, though," says spokesman Alan Moore.

Who would have expected an English pagan anarchist writer of graphic novels to be a Tancredo staffer? I'm surprised that didn't wrap up the geek vote right there.

Posted by KCinDC | January 7, 2008 12:35 PM

I'm with Tyro.

Grey's Anatomy and American Idol are indeed pretty schlocky from where I sit, but I know plenty of intelligent women -- graduates of Ivy League schools, like HIllary -- who really enjoy these shows (Project Runway is also up there). And they also watch Sopranos, Deadwood, Lost, etc.

Now personally, I'd rather watch The Wire or The Sopranos any day of the week and twice on Sunday, but some people like to watch TV to unwind and decompress, and don't care to obsess over the cultural and socio-political import of every last character, scene and storyline.

Ain't nothing wrong with that.

Posted by Frank | January 7, 2008 1:10 PM

Who would have expected an English pagan anarchist writer of graphic novels to be a Tancredo staffer? I'm surprised that didn't wrap up the geek vote right there.

Frankly, I'm a little frustrated with Moore right now, as it's turning out to be next to impossible to get my hands on The League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier for any kind of reasonable price. I know he hates DC, but what's with the tiny printing?

Posted by Antid Oto | January 7, 2008 2:17 PM

Oops. They seem to have printed another run. I take it all back, Alan.

Posted by Antid Oto | January 7, 2008 2:55 PM

Hillary's TV show preferences make sense if you realize that she's desperate for love.

Doctor dramas, dancing, all that very female romantic stuff.

Hillary seriously needs a serious porking. And this proves she ain't getting it from Bill, who's too worn out by his interns up at the Harlem office.

She wants to screw CHRIS MATTHEWS, for Christ's sakes! How desperate is THAT?

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | January 7, 2008 8:11 PM

Obama likes the Wire? He just might have my vote.

Posted by Marc | January 16, 2008 10:07 AM